


The Rise

by mrichar7



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: And we can definitely make this movie less stuffed, But Rey can be a nobody and still be important, Fix-It, Force Bond (Star Wars), I didn't hate TROS but here are some things I would change, In fact I liked a lot of stuff about TROS, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Multi, POV Finn (Star Wars), POV Kylo Ren, POV Rey (Star Wars), Retelling, Rey Needs A Hug, Reylo - Freeform, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:28:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 30,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21915262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrichar7/pseuds/mrichar7
Summary: This is a fix-it/alternative story of The Rise of Skywalker. I didn't hate the movie, and I actually liked quite a bit of it. But if we're being honest, The Last Jedi was going one way and TROS went way off in another direction. So let's fix this film one chapter at a time, and be positive about it!Yes to Reylo, yes to Finnpoe, yes to gays in space!
Relationships: Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Finn/Rose Tico, Kylo Ren & Rey, Kylo Ren/Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 66
Kudos: 171





	1. Meeting the Emperor

They were devoted, Kylo Ren had to at least give them that. Twenty-if not thirty-Vader loyalists who spent their days guarding a powerful and secret Sith Holocron. It was exactly what Ren was looking for, and the loyalists were not going to give it up easily. Unfortunately for them and despite their numbers, Ren had the upper hand. Not because he could command the force to do what he wished, but because he was angry. Motivated and angry were a combination that no one would want to be on the other side of when it came to Kylo Ren.

After Ren had taken out ten of the loyalists before they could land a single blow on him, the remainder backed off but didn’t retreat. With some caution, they could briefly take on Ren and even caught him off guard a few times. Ren felt a weapon strike him from behind, but the pain didn’t come. He knew he wouldn’t feel it until he was back on his ship, his forward momentum slowing just enough for him to feel every bruise, sore muscle, and cut on his body.

Ren whipped around and sliced his saber through the air wildly, bringing the loyalist down to the ground where he would never get up from again. Launching himself forward towards an incoming loyalist, Ren caught him and slammed him to the ground. Ren couldn’t tell if he felt the loyalists back break from the impact while his hands were still gripping him, or if he felt it through the force. But honestly, he couldn’t care less.

He had finished them off in less than ten minutes. Ren paused for only a moment, and in those few seconds he could feel the hot air of Mustafar close in around him. Ren had been to Mustafar before, he’d even spotted the loyalists from a distance. But they hadn’t paid any attention to him then. Vader’s castle had been in ruins long before Ren had ever visited, but nevertheless this planet was important to him. Vader had been reborn here, much as Ren had after he'd left Skywalker’s academy all those years ago.

Shaking off the memories, Ren strode forward to the reason he had come to Mustafar in the first place. The box was old, and made of crude stone. There was an inscription carved into the lid, but Ren barely gave it a glance, shoving the lid onto the ground. Reaching inside, Ren pulled out the Holocron. It was smaller than he had expected, for all the trouble it took to find it. A three-dimensional triangle filled with darkness, save for one red light that seemed to be bouncing around on the inside, drawing his attention inwards. There also seemed to be voices coming from the Holocron, whispering in a language Ren didn’t know. It didn’t matter, he didn’t need to know what it was saying. All he needed was the coordinates.

************

Back on his ship, Ren followed the directions being transmitted from the Holocron. He was heading for an unknown system, it wouldn’t be on any other map. Ren alone would be able to find this hidden location, unless the second Holocron was found. He tried to put that thought out of his mind, but as usual, he betrayed himself by thinking of _her_.

_She could find the second holocron._

Ren wouldn’t put it past Rey to find something next to impossible. If anyone could do it, it would be her. It wouldn’t do to think this way, Ren would show Rey no fondness ever again. He had offered the universe to her, and Rey betrayed his wishes.

_She couldn’t understand the power that was offered to her._

Ren came out of light speed and was immediately circling a planet that emitted a sinister energy. More so than he had ever felt. He put his thoughts of Rey aside as he entered the planet’s atmosphere. Exegol loomed larger and closer, a barren wasteland of a planet. The holocron sent him straight to the temple. It looked like a large, square rock formation that stood hundreds of feet high and at least a mile long. Ren brought his ship down to the surface and landed near the temple.

From the air, it looked as though the rock itself was the temple, but as the exit ramp to his ship was lowered Ren saw that the rock seemed to be floating off the ground with no apparent support system. Ren steeled himself for whatever he may face in the temple, and proceeded forward as fast as he could without breaking into a run. He lit his saber to both prepare himself for whatever was waiting for him inside and to light his way. It was dark on this planet, and there were no visible lights in or around the temple.

Ren passed underneath the lip of the rock and continued forward to the center, where he assumed would be the entrance. He was correct. The moment he stopped walking, the ground itself started to lower. There were still no lights, but lightning from below the earth would flash momentarily. In these moments, the enormous statues facing the him were illuminated. There were four of them that he could see, hundred-foot high statues of Sith were there to welcome or threaten him. He took it as a welcome.

The floor reached its lowest point, more than a hundred feet below the rock formation. The dark energy radiating from this low point was enough to slow Ren down. He hadn’t been scared since he was a boy, and he wasn’t scared now. But Ren was unnerved. He moved forward towards the sounds echoing across the large chamber. He couldn’t tell how large it was, as the only light source continued to be the flashes of lightning every few seconds. Peering around a corner, Ren found a sight he was not prepared for.

Large cylinders that resembled out of date bacta-tanks were set up and surrounded by a variety of creatures, each moving back and forth between the tanks.

_"At last, my boy. You have come to me."_

Ren’s heart picked up its pace, he turned. Looking for the source of the voice and raising his saber in the process.

_"I know your thoughts boy, I have been every voice you have ever heard inside your head."_

The voice shifted, it was Snoke. It shifted again and he heard his grandfather. It was then that Ren noticed what was inside the tanks, and the sight made his stomach turn. Two identical Snoke figures were pressed against the glass, unseeing and not breathing but clearly ready to emerge from the tank and resume their torture of him. Before Ren could contemplate this any further, he felt a presence behind him and whipped around, bringing his saber up to hold in the face of the speaker.

The Emperor. Palpatine. Darth Sidious. All names to describe the shell of a man that hung before him. The Emperor was attached to an apparatus of some kind that held his frail body in a standing position. Ren could barely call it a body, the Emperor looked more like a corpse. His eyes were entirely white, his skin clung to the bones. He would be easy to kill.

“And why would you kill me, boy?” The Emperor questioned. His face was only occasionally lit by the lightning, the rest of the time Ren could only see the hood that was drawn up over the corpse of the once powerful Emperor.

“I am the Supreme Leader. My power cannot be questioned. Your existence ended the moment you broadcasted your presence to anyone who has the will to listen.” Ren returned, still holding up his lightsaber in a position that showed he was ready to strike.

“My dear boy, all I want is to help you. I have been waiting for you, preparing for you. More than a hundred ships will be at your command, entire star systems will fall with the might and force I can provide for you. With my help, a new order will rise and we will rule the galaxy.”

“Why would you give all of that to me.” Ren posed this not as a question, it was a statement. There was no way a stipulation was not involved. The Emperor’s face was lit up for longer than it had been so far, with a massive bolt of lightning flashing throughout the room. The corpse was smiling.

“Because you are going to do something for me. You are going to do what you could not before, you will kill the girl. And with her death, the last of the Jedi will be gone. With the Jedi gone, this Sith will rise.”

Ren paused, taking this in. Rey should mean nothing to him, she rejected him. Humiliated him in refusing his offer.

But he couldn’t shake the fact that he thought she could still be turned.

Looking into the Emperor’s sunken face, Ren slowly lowered his saber.


	2. The Vision

“Be with me.” Rey said softly, keeping her breath steady. She was floating several feet in the air, a collection of stones were slowly circling around Rey at the same tempo as her breathing.

“Be with me.” Rey said again, trying to keep the pleading edge out of her voice. Rey opened her eyes.

“They’re not with me, ugh.” She slowly descended to the ground, flipping once in the air to make a complete circle before landing both feet on the ground. The rocks that had been floating alongside her dropped with soft thuds onto the dirt.

The forest surrounding them was lush and green, and infinite number of trees spread out as far as Rey could see. The Resistance had chosen this location as a home base for a number of reasons, chief among them being the tree cover in case any spies were trying to sneak a visual of their numbers from above. Any hint at how few Resistance members had been recruited would be a huge blow.

Rey strode over to where General Leia Organa was waiting, her brother Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber clutched in her hands.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do it. Reaching out to the Jedi of the past? Maybe Master Luke could have done it, but definitely not me.” Rey said, defeated.

Leia smiled at Rey, “Don’t underestimate yourself, Rey. You’re still young, you have room to get better. Feel down on yourself when you’ve reached the top and have nowhere else to go.”

“Thank you, Master. I think I’ll run the course again.” Rey said in return. Leia handed over the lightsaber and watched as Rey walked to the starting point.

Leia had been dutifully training Rey for the better part of a year, which included setting up a training course with a multitude of obstacles. As she watched Rey prepare to begin the course, Leia reflected on the changes she had seen in the girl in such a short amount of time. Her confidence as a leader had improved beyond all measure. In the times that Rey had led missions off-base, her crew reported a competent and well rounded soldier. Though these missions were few and far between. Rey felt that she needed to show her strength as a Jedi, rather than a military leader and used that excuse to spend her days training as if her life depended on it. These days Rey often wore her hair braided down her back to keep it out of her face, and had done away with her arm wrappings due to the heat and humidity of the Resistance base. She had kept an arm band covering a small portion of her upper arm, and so far had refused to explain the reason to anyone. Even Finn, who had taken offense by this for a couple weeks.

Rey steadily headed for the first obstacle of the course, a single rope had been set up across a wide chasm over a flowing river. Donning a helmet that would shield her eyes, Rey ignited her lightsaber and set across to the middle of the rope where a small practice droid fired miniature shots at her. Rey blocked them with ease, catching each blast with her saber. This had never been a difficult obstacle for her, the force seemed to reach out with ease to let Rey know when a shot was coming.

Rey continued across the rope and upon reaching the opposite side, she threw down her helmet and raced off to the next obstacle, dodging the blasts from the practice droid who would follow her throughout the rest of the course. Bolting across the top of a hill range that overlooked the valley below, Rey’s pace picked up as she willed her legs to go faster using strength from the force. Another chasm was ahead of her, this time with no rope or bridge to help Rey across. Taking a running jump, Rey leapt across the chasm, much farther than anyone could have done without the boost from the force. As her feet made contact with the ground, Rey jumped again. This time, she deflected off of a tree and switched her momentum to another direction. A red sash was dangling from the tree Rey was now aiming for, and using her saber she cut off a section from the bottom of the sash. To break her fall, Rey landed in a somersault and quickly righted herself to stand up.

“ _Rey_ ” Came a whisper, sounding uncomfortably close to her ear. Adding to her unease, Rey immediately recognized the voice has _his._ Ren.

“Ow!” Rey cried, falling to the ground. The practice droid had aimed at her ankles, and continued to fire. Rey was distracted, and she lunged out wildly in the direction of the practice droid, missing each time. The droid continued to fire on her, causing her to yelp as she was stung repeatedly.

Dragging herself to her feet, Rey continued to swing at the droid. With each swing she missed, and she was now starting to take down trees with her wild strokes. Opting for a different tactic, Rey threw her saber out horizontally. Spotting a large branch on the ground, Rey called it to her hand and swung it over her head. She caught the droid off guard as she smashed it to pieces against the trunk of a nearby tree. Reaching out with her free hand, Rey grabbed her lightsaber as it completed its arc. The force of her catch causing the end red sash she was still clutching in her left hand to jolt up and down.

At the same moment that her hand made contact with the saber, her vision of the forest dropped away and instead she saw herself. But it wasn’t Rey, it couldn’t be Rey. Her face was beautiful, none of the worry or sleeplessness that often-marked Rey’s face. She was wearing black robes, the hood drawn up over her hair. The room around them was larger than Rey could see, and a sense of dark dread filled her soul. This dark Rey was standing on a throne, and she wasn’t alone. Kylo Ren stood next to her, their arms linked in solidarity. At the same moment, they both turned to look at Rey.

Gasping, Rey found herself back in the forest. _I’m never touching that thing again._ Rey recalled herself saying that when she first touched the Skywalker saber, after it showed her a vision of her parents leaving and so many more confusing images. It had happened again, and this time Rey couldn’t shake the thought that she wasn’t seeing the past, she was seeing the future. A flurry of beeps brought her back to herself. Turning around, Rey saw that BB-8 was trapped under a tree that Rey had brought down with the saber.

“Oh! Beebee-ate, I’m so sorry!” Rey cried, as she ran over to free the droid from the large tree trunk. There were three more obstacles to be done, but Rey couldn’t bring herself to finish.

“Come on Beebee, let’s find Leia.” Rey said dejectedly, and she slowly walked herself back to the base.

************

“I couldn’t finish, I’m sorry. I’m just not... feeling like myself today.” Rey said as she stood in front of Leia, looking down at her feet. She hated to disappoint Leia, it was like disappointing a mother.

“It’s alright Rey, we all have off days.” Leia said kindly, she used her pointer finger to gently lift Rey’s chin so that she would look Leia in the eyes.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Leia commented.

“No, I just…I don’t know. I’m fine.” Rey shrugged, for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to tell Leia the truth of what she had seen in the forest. Leia looked as though she didn’t entirely believe Rey, but she didn’t push the question. Rey handed Leia back the lightsaber, who watched her go with a bemused expression on her face.

Rey strode off in the direction of her books. She had brought them back from the island where Luke had been hiding for so many years. Rey herself couldn’t read (Unkar Plutt of course never bothered to teach her anything but the basic word recognition needed for scavenging), but C3-PO was often ready and willing to translate. Before she could make it to her hiding spot, Rey’s path was blocked by Rose.

“Are you okay, Rey?” Rose questioned. Rey loved all her friends very much, but it was more likely for Rey to be sitting alone pouring over her books or training on the obstacle course with BB-8 in tow than eating and joking with the rest of the Resistance. With Finn and Poe often away on missions to help build Resistance numbers and allies, Rose took it upon herself to check up on Rey as often as possible. Rey was sure Rose conveyed her findings to Finn and Poe whenever they had finished a conversation. Nevertheless, Rose checked in because she cared, so Rey smiled at her.

“Yes Rose, I’m fine. I just finished training for the day with Leia.”

“You look a little shaken up.” Rose continued, trying to get Rey to lower her mental guard.

“No, it’s just… I tripped only a couple obstacles in and never really found my balance. So I had to stop before I got to the halfway mark.” Rey shrugged, hoping that Rose wouldn’t see past her lie. Rey was still new to lying, and she worried that her friends could see right through her.

But Rose smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it. I get off my game all the time when I'm working on a tricky fix in the engine room, sometimes I frustrate myself so much I have to go on a long walk way before lunch. The pressure gets to you sometimes, you know…” Rose trailed off. Before Rey could say anything in return, a beeping from one of the computers behind them brought their attention skyward. Sure enough, a ship was entering the atmosphere. The shape was a dead giveaway, the Falcon was coming back, along with Finn, Chewie, and Poe. The ship was also on fire.

“Damn it, Poe.” Rey muttered as she and Rose took off towards the landing strip where the Falcon would make contact shortly. Thoughts about Ren and herself (but dowsed in darkness) were almost gone from Rey’s head as the Falcon and its occupants took precedent. But the chill she had felt since the vision continued without abandon.


	3. A New Mission

“It’s on fire, it’s all on fire!” Poe yelled to the crew that came in to assess the damage that the Falcon sustained on its most recent trip. In Poe’s mind, the mission had been a success, they had gotten valuable information from their source _and_ discovered that there was a spy on the Resistance side within the First Order. Unfortunately, the information they had received was worse than Poe could possibly imagine, and the idea of informing the rest of the Resistance was weighing heavily on his mind.

“What happened?” Rey yelled as she approached the Falcon at a run. Clearly, she was more concerned about the state of the Falcon than anything else.

Chewie roared from a distance about light speed jumping as he helped the mechanical crew contain the fire that was threatening to damage the engines irreparably.

“Light speed jumping? You can’t take Han’s ship light speed jumping, it’ll overexert the engines!” Rey exclaimed.

“Well, clearly I can.” Poe retorted, he was already annoyed.

“How did it go? Did you find the spy?” Rey questioned, changing topics.

“It went bad, really bad actually. You should have been out there with us.” Poe’s annoyance was blossoming into full on anger as Finn approached the duo.

“You know what you are? You’re a difficult man, that’s what you are.” Rey had a smile on her face as she said this, but there was a definite edge to her voice. Poe stomped off and Rey caught sight of Finn. She ran up to him and embraced Finn tightly before pulling back, keeping her hands on his shoulders.

“So, bad mood?” Rey asked.

“Me?” Said Finn.

“No, him.” Rey responded, jerking her thumb back at Poe who was taking out his frustration at Rey by yelling orders at some of the higher-level officers in the Resistance.

“Always.” Finn tried to keep his tone light, he knew how testy Rey and Poe’s relationship could get.

Rose joined Rey and Finn at that moment, she had been helping the mechanical crew with the Falcon. She placed her hand on Finn’s shoulder.

“I’m glad you both made it back in one piece, even if the ship didn’t.” Rose told Finn.

Poe chose this moment to return, no less upset than he was when he left in the first place.

“We need you out there, Rey. You’re the best fighter we’ve got, and you spend more and more time here.” Poe said. Rey was struck by his tone and didn’t respond to him before he walked away again.

“He’s right.” Finn said quietly, following Poe. Rose turned to Rey, “Well, I like having you here.” Rey smiled in response to Rose’s words. Although she couldn’t help the guilty from Poe's words, why couldn't she do anything right?

********

The Resistance was gathered in front of Poe, who was giving a debriefing of his and Finn’s mission to gather information about the possible spy in the First Order. The mission had apparently included more than a few tie fighters, hence Poe’s anger at Rey.

Rey, as usual, was sitting slightly apart from the larger group. Finn and Rose had leadership roles within the Resistance and therefore stood closer to the front of the group, but Finn always made sure he positioned himself in a way that allowed him to see what Rey was thinking. At present, she was staring wide-eyed at Poe as she listened to what he had to say.

“There is a spy in the First Order, and he was able to bring us some information that honestly, seems a little suspicious to me. The voice that we have been hearing over the broadcasts, is apparently Emperor Palpatine back from the dead.” Poe conveyed this information in a way that might suggest the spy could be wrong. But the pit that had bottomed out his stomach couldn’t help but trust the spy, whoever he was.

The Resistance members shifted where they stood uneasily, almost none of them had been alive when Palpatine was in power. But they had heard the stories, and those were good enough to scare everyone in the group to silence. To Rey, stories of Emperor Palpatine were rare. Growing up in the sands of Jakku, she had heard stories of great warriors such as Luke Skywalker and his twin sister, and Han Solo the smuggler. But Palpatine was rarely mentioned, perhaps folks were too scared to make up stories about him.

Poe continued on, “The spy tells us that there is a way to find the Emperor, a Sith Holocron that was last seen in the sands of Pasana. Apparently, it could be near impossible to find.”

At these words though, Rey had a thought. She jumped up from where she was sitting and took off towards her books. Finn watched her go, curious.

Rey opened her book bag and began pulling volumes out, reaching for a book in the depths of the bag. It was the smallest book, and it was all handwritten. It was Luke’s journal, and Rey was certain that she’d heard the word ‘Pasana’ spoken when 3-PO was reading to her. Rey quickly returned to the group. Apparently, Finn was not the only one to notice her quick exit. Him and Leia were both staring expectantly at her.

“Poe?” Rey said tentatively, remembering their earlier argument. Poe nodded at her.

“I think I may know where to start looking for the Holocron.”

******

Rey was lost in thought as she packed up the Falcon. Chewie was helping her with the larger items, but she was barely responding to his attempts at conversation. The day had been a whirlwind already, and she was about to embark on an exceedingly dangerous mission. The vision from earlier kept replaying in her head. Rey and Ren standing together in solidarity on a throne of darkness. Rey shivered, it wouldn’t do to have her mind wandering as she embarked on this particular mission. At the sound of footsteps approaching that didn’t seem to be Wookie feet, Rey turned. Finn, Poe, and Rose were heading in her direction.

“I’m taking your advice, I’m getting out there and I will find the Holocron we need.” Rey said boldly to Poe. He responded by patting her on the shoulder and saying, “I know, we’re coming with you.” Before heading up the ramp into the Falcon. Rey was incredulous, and she turned to Finn and Rose.

“It’s too dangerous, I have to go alone.” Rey said pleadingly. Finn and Rose made to move past her as Finn said, “Yeah, alone with friends.” Rey put a hand on Finn’s shoulder to stop him.

“Finn, I have to do this alone.” Rey said in almost a whisper. She couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to Finn.

“You don’t need to do anything alone, you have us. You have your family.” Finn told her in a reassuring tone. Rey appreciated the words, and allowed her friends to board the Falcon, but it wouldn’t stop her from worrying. Finn, Poe, Rose, and Chewie could all take care of themselves, but Rey felt the burden of being responsible for all of them in some way. These thoughts were paused at the sight of Leia, who was approaching with Luke’s lightsaber.

Rey moved down the ramp to speak with Leia, who gently placed the saber in Rey’s hands. Leia said, “I believe in you, Rey. This is what you have been preparing for, I have no doubts that you will be successful.”

Leia’s unrelenting confidence was enough to push Rey to tears. Leia correctly interpreted what Rey needed, and wrapped her in a hug. Rey could barely remember anything about her mother, but hugging Leia seemed to bring something back. The memory of a hug, burying her head in her mother’s hair. Leia sensed Rey’s weariness and released Rey from the embrace, she put her hand under Rey’s chin and said, “May the force be with you.”


	4. Desert Festival

Pasana-it turned out-was a desert. As the Falcon made its approach, Finn wondered if this fact would make Rey upset. It did look a lot like Jakku from his vantage point. Tentatively, Finn closed his eyes and tried to focus his mind on Rey and where she was sitting in the pilot’s seat. He didn’t feel any anger or sadness, only calm. Finn opened his eyes as Rey turned back for a moment to look at Finn, she had felt something from the force in his general direction. But she didn’t have time to investigate any further, Pasana was approaching quickly.

“Threepeo told me that Master Luke wrote about being in Pasana years ago. He didn’t mention any Holocron specifically, but it’s our only clue so I suggest we start where he visited the last time he was here.” Rey told the group. They all made noises of agreement as Rey brought the ship down to land in a valley.

Equipped with blasters, and Rey with the lightsaber, the group exited the Falcon into the bright midday sun of Pasana. There was no wind, but the heat seemed to be pushing against Rey as she looked around. It was a miraculously similar environment to Jakku, only with massive rock formations popping up every hundred feet or so. The sound of a large crowd and banging drums were floating down to Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose, and Chewie.

“Should we take a look?” Rose asked the group.

“Yes, let’s go.” Rey agreed, so they all staggered up the sand incline together. Rey was a bit more sure-footed than the rest of them, all of whom took a couple tumbles on the way up. They were all covered in sand by the time they made it over the crest of the valley. Finn muttered, “I hate sand” as he tried to brush some of the offending substance off of his jacket. Finn’s own memories of Jakku were enough to bring down his mood at least. He bumped into Chewie, who had stopped walking along with the rest of the group.

“Hey, what are you-” But Finn stopped talking once he caught sight of what the group was seeing. A huge crowd of some species he didn’t know the name of was spread out in front of them, the majority of which were dancing exuberantly to the drums and musical sounds that were coming from a band playing somewhere unseen. The crowd all seemed to be wearing clothes made out of the brightest colors of green, blue, pink, orange, and yellow. These same colors were exploding every few moments in the sky with loud bangs, the individuals on the ground were setting off fireworks made of colored sand.

The group from the Falcon exchanged looks with each other, how were they going to find the Holocron with all of this happening? Poe offered a suggestion, “Should we split up?” Rey didn’t want the group to split, but it would be the quickest way to find any helpful clues. Rey walked into the crowd, taking in the sights of the festival happening around her.

The mystery species dancing at the festival was approximately human sized. But they had distinctly longer and larger noses that ended in a flat line, and their ears were placed at the top of their heads. There were large tents set up on the outskirts of the dancing, and under these tents were children. Loads of them, from infants to older children chasing after each other giggling in the shade. Rey paused, children were a rarity on Jakku and in the Resistance, and she loved to hear the sound of their laughter. A child who was maybe half of Rey’s height approached and pulled on the sash around Rey’s top. Rey bent down and smiled, “Hello” She said.

The child smiled back, and although she spoke in another language, Rey heard the meaning in her voice as the force encouraged her to listen intently. The child said, “Welcome to our festival,” and she pulled off one of her many beaded necklaces and placed it around Rey’s neck. “My known name is Emeja, and my clan name is Ooeh.”

Rey smiled sadly, as the idea of family names often made her feel. “Your name is lovely. I’m Rey, just Rey.”

Emeja made a fist with her hand and pressed it against her own chest, before leaning forward and pressing it against Rey’s, “I give you blessings, Rey.”

Words failed Rey as she beamed at Emeja, who tilted her head down and walked off to rejoin her friends. As she watched Emeja walk away, Rey felt a familiar sensation of the world slowing down. Rey stood up, looking wildly around for her friends. She caught sight of Poe and hurried in his direction, until her surroundings slowed down completely and she seemed to be stuck in a world of slow motion. All sounds were cut off as Rey’s breathing picked up. She turned around to see Ren standing in front of her. Before Rey could say anything, Ren spoke.

“Emperor Palpatine wants you dead.” He said.

“So, you’re with him now, taking orders again.” Rey hoped she sounded confident.

“No, I’m not. And I don’t want to kill you, I want you to join me. I want you to say yes this time.” Ren spoke as he took steps forward. Rey held her ground.

“I will never join the dark side.” Rey hissed. She realized that Ren was wearing his mask again, hiding from the world. He was close to her now, they were simultaneously inches apart and countless miles away.

“Don’t say never” He warned, and with an unexpected reach forward he snatched the necklace that Emeja had given Rey off of her neck.

Rey’s hand flew to the spot where the necklace had just been hanging, and as the world sped back up again and the volume around her resumed, Rey realized that Poe was grabbing her other arm.

“Rey! What’s wrong?” Poe pulled Rey around to face him, she was taking large gulping breaths as if she had been underwater for a long period of time. A sand firework exploded over their heads, Poe and Rey ducked as yellow sand floated down on them.

“We need to go, now!” Rey cried, spinning around trying to catch sight of the rest of their group. Ren would be able to track them, he had the necklace and there was no doubt in Rey’s mind that he would be able to pinpoint their location based on a simple analyzation.

“Ren knows we’re here!” Was all the information Rey gave Poe as she took off into the crowd, looking for the others.

“Finn!” Rey called out. Poe, who was right behind her, said, “Rey, don’t be so loud. There could already be troopers here on the lookout.”

But then Finn, Rose, and Chewie were there. They hurried towards Rey and Poe as they caught sight of Rey’s expression.

“Ren knows that we’re here, everyone is in danger. We need to leave _right now_.” Rey gave as little details as possible. She had explained to all of them the connection between her and Ren before, but she didn’t have time to explain what she'd just experienced. She would tell them more once they were safely on the Falcon and away from this planet.

“Over there!” Rey heard them first, and she clutched Rose’s arm and pointed in the direction of two Stormtroopers who had spotted them. The Stormtroopers present were outnumbered, but everyone knew that where there was one trooper, there were bound to be more just around the corner.

“Oh we gotta go!” Rose exclaimed. The group took off in the direction that lead them away from the troopers, which also led them away from the Falcon. Chewie, who was in the lead of the group, took a right turn behind a relatively small rock formation. The rest of the group followed, and they squeezed their shoulders together to avoid being seen from the other side.

“Do you think they saw us hide here?” Finn hissed. A deluge of blaster fire came from both sides of the rock as terrified shouts from the festival started up.

“Unless they’re using this rock for target practice, I’d wager yes!” Poe returned. They all side-eyed each other, how were they going to get out of this without the Falcon? From their side of the rock, a rickety cart rolled past them. It was covered in the textiles seen from the festival. From inside the cart, a voice called, “You five, get in here!”

Rey sensed no darkness from whomever was inside the cart, and they really had no other options. Under cover from the rock formation, the group hurried forward and into the relative safety of the still moving cart. The tall occupant inside shut the curtains closed quickly, and took off his helmet.

Finn gave a surprised shout and said, “That’s Lando Calrissian!” As Chewie made noises of happiness and crushed Lando in a hug.

“We know who he is, Finn.” Rey breathed, yet she too was staring wide-eyed at the legend before her.

Lando chuckled and said, “Now how did you all attract so much unwanted attention, and why wasn’t I invited?”


	5. Sand Chase

“How are you here?” Poe asked Lando.

“Why are you here?” Finn followed up.

“Do you know anything about a Sith Holocron on this planet?” Rey asked, casting a sideways glance at Finn and Poe.

Despite the precarious situation they were all in, Lando seemed to still be at ease. He answered all of their questions, “I came here years ago, with Luke Skywalker. I believe we were looking for the Holocron in question.”

“Did you find it? We need it badly, Emperor Palpatine is somewhere out in the universe and he’s threatening to take back the power from the New Republic.” Rey said breathlessly.

“I heard the rumors,” Lando said darkly. “We know where it is. Luke wasn’t here to collect the Holocron, he just wanted to be sure of its location.”

“Can you show us where it is?” Finn asked. Lando moved to the head of the cart, past the driver who was paying them no attention. He moved aside a curtain and pointed straight ahead of them.

“You see those two rocks dead ahead? The rock on the left has an entrance that will take you to a tunnel below the ground. The Holocron is down there, it shouldn’t be more than a ten-minute walk up the tunnel. We can distract the troopers out there for the time being.” Lando said, nodding at their fellow passengers on the cart.

“How can we ever thank you?” Rose asked as they prepared to exit the cart.

“Win,” Lando stated simply, “And wait for my signal.” Without another word, Lando as his crew jumped out of the cart. Rey and her friends were silent as they waited for the signal, whatever that would be. Rey was feeling a bit uneasy, they didn’t get a lot of information from Lando about what he had been doing here. He seemed like a shoot first ask questions later kind of person.

“What do you think the signal-” Finn started before they heard a large BANG followed by the smaller sounds of blasters being shot.

“Go!” Rose encouraged the group, and they filed out of the cart and into the hot desert sun. It seemed as though Lando’s crew had set off a number of the sand fireworks at once.

“Over there!” Poe directed the group to a set of three-person speeder bikes. They rushed over, following Poe’s lead. Once he reached the first of the two speeders, he pulled down a panel at the bottom of the bike and yanked at two of the wires he found. Finn eyed him suspiciously, “How do you know how to do that?” He questioned.

“Experience,” Was the answer Poe offered, “Get on the bike!”

Finn and Rose jumped on the speeder that Poe had just hot-wired, while Rey and Chewie jumped onto the second speeder as Poe rushed over to get theirs started as well. As soon as Poe had finished with Rey’s speeder, she started it up and took off in the direction that Lando had pointed them. The second speeder had barely joined Rey’s when the incoming blaster fire started from behind them.

Rey turned around and aimed wildly behind her, she saw Finn and Rose joining her as Poe piloted their speeder. Chewie aimed his bowcaster at the incoming stormtroopers, who were on First Order regulation speeder bikes themselves. A blast from Chewie’s bowcaster caught one of the three speeders and it exploded on impact, the heat from the blaze catching all the way up to Rey, who was the farthest ahead. She needed to do something or else they would be caught, or killed.

Taking a left turn, Rey steered her bike into a narrow opening between two tall rock formations. All but one of the remaining First Order speeders followed her, Chewie roared at Rey to questions her decision. She didn’t have time to respond as she grabbed the brake in one hand and the steering stick in the other. At the same time, Rey pulled both levers. She and Chewie careened to the left while stopping, almost upending their speeder. Two of the First Order speeders pulled ahead, and Chewie aimed and fired his bowcaster. One of the speeders caught fire with a loud bang, before crashing into their companion and running them both into a tall rock formations. Rey started up their speeder again and pulled out back into the open sand field.

She could see Finn, Poe, and Rose in their speeder, all of them were waving their hands and yelling something at them. Rey suddenly felt a nudge from the force and she turned around to see a fourth, unexpected First Order speeder following them. Rey didn’t react in time, and a blast from the troopers caught her and Chewie’s speeder at the front end. The impact sent Rey and Chewie flying into the air.

Rey hit the ground hard, her feet flew over her head once as the impact from the ground flipped her over. For a moment, Rey was unable to breath in, she recognized the feeling as having the wind knocked out of her. She had fallen too many times to count as she climbed through the wreckages on Jakku, so the feeling wasn’t new to her. Despite her lack of oxygen, Rey fired her blaster towards the Stormtroopers and surprisingly caught the driver of their speeder. Before the other trooper could respond, the un-piloted speeder flew into a rock formation and exploded on impact.

Rey had sat herself up to fire, but upon seeing that her shot had been good, Rey laid back down as she tried to get her breath back. Chewie growled at her softly, and she waved her hand at him to show she was fine.

“Rey! Are you okay?” Finn was running towards Rey and Chewie, Poe and Rose were right behind him. Rey’s breath had come back to her, and she slowly breathed in and out.

“I’m fine Finn, don’t worry.” Rey said trying to sound assuring. Finn extended a hand and pulled Rey into a sitting position. Rey distinctly remembered the same thing happening to them in the sands of Jakku so long ago. They were running from Stormtroopers then as well, some things would never change.

“Uh, what is happening.” Poe called out. Rey realized that they were all starting to sink into the sand, her heart dropped down to her stomach.

“Sinking fields! We need to get out or we’ll drown!” Rey exclaimed, trying to stand up. But everything was going too fast, they all were yelling at the same time and they were pulled farther and farther down into the sand. Behind her panic, Rey felt incredibly stupid. She had grown up around sinking fields, how had she not noticed these?

“Rey! I never got a chance to tell you!” Finn cried out.

“What?” Rey responded, still fighting to stay above the sand.

“I need to-” But before Finn could finish, the entire group went down. Submerged in the sands of Pasana.


	6. Tunnel Vision

Poe hit the ground first, emerging from the sands above with a shout. He got up quickly and dusted himself off, looking up to see where he had just fallen from. The sandy ceiling was low, if Poe had placed his arms above his head his hands would be able to touch. The sand above him was shifting ever so slightly, as if it were a living thing that never stood still.

“Rey! Finn!” Poe called out, Chewie responded with a roar to indicate that he was okay. Poe heard a thud and a yell from someplace down the tunnel. He took off in that direction to find Finn laying on the ground, having just emerged from the sand above them. Poe lunged forward to pull Finn to his feet, and grabbed him in a tight hug. They lingered for a moment, taking each other in and the relative safety that they found in each other’s arms.

They had both agreed that the middle of a war was not a good time to start a relationship, but some days were harder than others to stick to that agreement.

As they pulled apart and looked each other closely in the eyes, Poe and Finn both heard people emerging through the sandy ceiling. Poe broke off in the direction of one, Finn in the other. Back where Poe had initially entered the sand cave he found Rey fighting through the sand above him. Reaching up, Poe caught Rey before she hit the ground.

“Where’s Finn?” Was the first thing Rey asked. Poe responded, “Just back that way.” Before Rey and Poe could get very far, Finn, Rose, and Chewie came into view heading towards them. Rey grabbed Finn and a tight hug, while Poe went over to Rose. As they hugged, Poe asked, “You alright?”

“Yes. How about you Chewie?” Rose responded. Chewie growled a comforting acknowledgement. The group took in their surroundings, and they finally noticed that they were in the middle of a long tunnel. No one could see the beginning or the end.

“Do you think this is the tunnel that Lando was telling us about?” Rey asked the group quietly.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Poe said, reaching into his pocket to pull out a torch. Rey ignited her lightsaber, the blue throwing some dim light onto the walls around them. Judging by the place in which they had fallen into the sand, Rey thought that their best bet was to travel in the direction away from where Finn and Rose had fallen through the sand. Rey led the way, her friends all poised with their blasters ready to fire.

“What were you going to tell me?” Rey asked Finn, who was following just behind her. Finn immediately went red in the face.

“What?” He tried to deflect.

“You know when we were sinking in the sand and you said, ‘Rey I never got the chance to tell you’.” Rey said, still leading the group through the tunnel.

“I’ll tell you later.” Finn conceded. Poe pulled up behind him, “Later when Poe’s not here?” He asked sarcastically. Great, now Poe was going to be cross with him.

“Mhm, yeah, when Poe’s not here.” Finn said with equal sarcasm. In truth, Finn wanted to tell Rey about how he had been feeling a growing connection to the force for a while now, and he was starting to need her help with it. Rey held up a hand to stop the group, she could sense an awful darkness ahead of them. Tentatively, Rey inched forward while keeping her lightsaber held aloft, her friends held their ground, ready to give Rey cover if she needed it.

Rey closed her eyes and tried to relax, despite the uncomfortable circumstances she found herself in. She hated the idea of calling something so dark to her hands, but this was a means to an end. _Come to me,_ Rey thought, urging the darkness she was sensing to show itself to her. She felt whatever it was speeding towards her, and a moment later the small triangle shaped object arrived in her outstretched hand.

Much like in the forest during her training session, Rey’s vision of the sand tunnel fell away and she was in the same room in which she saw herself standing with Ren. This time, neither she nor him was in sight. Instead, a figure in a long cloak with the hood drawn over his head was present. The room was dark, and Rey couldn’t really see anything other than the silhouette. But she could sense his darkness, it was a heavy, clinging feeling. She felt as though her clothes were being drenched in darkness, while her senses were being assaulted by the smell of rusted metal and blood, and her eyes stung until they watered.

A bolt of lightning lit up the room, and Rey caught sight of the figure for the first time in the light. It was just a flash, but she saw the empty eyes, the way the skin clung to the figure or was missing altogether. Her heart jumped up into her throat. Something told her this was him, Emperor Palpatine.

_“At last. Rey, you are coming to me. I look forward to keeping you here.”_

The Emperor spoke with a raspy voice, and finished his statement with a giddy laugh that echoed and boomed around the room. Even more disturbingly, Rey heard more unseen voices rising from around the room in the darkness where she couldn’t see. Chills ran up and down her body, Rey tried to run in some direction, she didn’t know which considering the noises were coming from all around.

But Rey found herself frozen to the spot.

Pure terror struck Rey, and she started crying despite herself.

“Ben!” Rey cried out, “Ben please help me!” She yelled out into nothingness. She heard a rumble above her head, and screamed as a bolt of lightning struck right where Rey was standing.

But she was back in the sand tunnel. And Poe was grabbing the Holocron out of her hand. Finn was shaking Rey’s shoulders, trying to call her attention back to him. Rey looked back and forth between them and Rose, not speaking. She could still smell the darkness, and her clothes felt distinctly damp.

“Rey, are you with us? Are you back?” Finn was questioning. Rey turned her eyes to Finn and silently gave a small nod. Finn, Poe, and Rose paused, stepping back from Rey to give her some space. She noticed there were tears on her cheeks, and she gently reached up to wipe some of them away.

“W- was I yelling something?” Rey asked tentatively. Her friends glanced at each other, Rey hadn’t sensed Chewie before, but she noticed that he was still standing slightly separated from the group giving them cover just in case anything nefarious decided to come through the tunnel.

“You were muttering something, but we couldn’t tell what it was. You just kind of froze, and then started crying. What happened?” Rose said as kindly as possible, although worry was written all over her face.

“I saw something,” Rey breathed, shaking her head back and forth. The closeness of the vision was starting to fade away, and Rey felt herself calming down, “I was in a huge room, and there was lightning. And someone was there, but he didn’t seem like a person. He said he was waiting for me…” Rey trailed off here. She was worried about what her friends would think if she revealed that the man was likely Palpatine, and that he talked about “keeping” her there. Wherever there was.

Finn gave Rey a gentle hug, while Poe gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. When Finn pulled away he wiped the rest of the tears from Rey’s face, and she gave a small smile. Without another word, Rey raised her lightsaber and headed back the way they came. Her friends glanced at each other before continuing to follow Rey. Lando hadn’t mentioned a way out, so she assumed they would have to go back to the entrance they had been trying to use.

Before the group could get very far, they were stopped again. This time by a noise coming from around a dark corner. It was a heavy dragging noise, sliding across the sand floor, coupled with some dull hissing noises. Rey immediately recognized the sounds as some kind of snake, there were a few varieties of sand snakes who lived near her home on Jakku. But while those snakes had been small and easy to avoid, the snake that appeared around the corner was immense. It took up almost the entire tunnel, it had probably made these tunnels.

Rey felt the others tense up behind her, and she assumed that they all had their blasters raised. But she waved them down, the snake had stopped in front of them, hissing menacingly. Rey sensed something about the snake that wasn’t threatening, it was agitated by a hurt. Rey slowly handed Finn her lightsaber, and she stepped over the snake’s coiling body while keeping eye contact with its own six eyes. She bent down to where she sensed the hurt and saw that there were three long gashes on the side of the snake’s body, all looked infected. While maintaining eye contact, Rey reached out to touch the snake near its wound.

She had to close her eyes to concentrate, as she was going to try to force heal the wound. Force healing was a power that she had heard while listening to the translated version of one of the Jedi texts. Surprisingly, this difficult use of the force came naturally to Rey, more so than anything she had been training so far. It did require a bit of energy though, it was essentially the process of transmitting some of her life energy to whomever she was healing. Which of course made it impossible to use on herself, but it had come in handy so far.

Extending some of herself to the snake, she felt its anger melt away into not exactly thanks, but at least ambivalence. When she had finished, the hand she had used as her anchor for healing was aching with the power she had used. But the snake immediately slipped out of their way, back up its own tunnel. Rey turned back to her friends who were watching her with astonishment.

“Shall we go?” Rey said, standing up. Finn silently handed her back the lightsaber and gave her a hand to pull up on. With no other words exchanged they continued to make their way towards the sunlight.


	7. Sand Fight

It was with some trepidation that Rey and her friends made it back up and out of the sand tunnel and back into the hot desert. The amount of time that had passed since they went into the sinking field had been enough that a whole squadron of stormtroopers had been assembled onto Pasana. Directly above the festival grounds stood an unmoving Star Destroyer, ready to blast the Falcon out of the sky the second they took off.

“How are we supposed to get back without being seen?” Rose murmured. No one offered any suggestions at first, they merely stared at the impossible odds that were stacked against them. Without surprise, Rey realized that she could sense Ren somewhere nearby. With this knowledge, a plan that was unlikely to work began to form in her mind. But what other choice did they have?

“Poe, do we have any of the small communicators?” Rey asked, turning to the rest of the group.

“We do, Chewie’s got them. Do you have a plan? All I got is run really fast.” Poe responded.

“Kylo Ren wants me to join him, and he’s here somewhere. I’m going to go out there and destroy his ship and fight him, but I’m going to surrender and tell him that I’m ready to learn the ways of the darkside,” Rey began, ignoring the rest of the groups protests, “He only knows I’m here, there’s no way anyone else can be the distraction, so don’t even think about volunteering. When his ship is destroyed, he’ll have to bring me back to that Star Destroyer up there. While I’m doing that, you all will go quickly and quietly back around through the valley and get to the Falcon. Once the First Order troopers have all gotten back onto their transporters, wait for me to tell you where I’ll be and come up to the ship to get me.” Rey finished. A lot of things could go wrong with this plan, but it seemed like it was their best bet. She could tell the others agreed that this was the only way to go, even if they didn’t like the specifics.

“And if he just kills you?” Finn asked wearily.

“I’m not going to let that happen, give me the communicator and stay hidden until they’re all distracted.” Chewie handed the communicator to Poe, who gave it to Rey. As he did so, he held Rey’s hand in his own for a moment, “Be careful.” He pleaded.

“Aren’t I always?” Rey said with a smile. She put the communicator into a small pocket on her belt, and shook her shoulders out before stepping around the rock formation. Rey walked slowly and deliberately out into the open, she could sense her friends’ dread the farther away she got from any cover. But there was something else she could sense too.

_Come on, Ren._

Then she heard the telltale shriek of an incoming Tie Fighter. Ren was on his way.

Rey steadied herself, and attempted to bring the force closer to her. Gathering up the light so that it clung to her in the same way that the darkness clung to her in the vision. Repressing a shiver from the memory, Rey took a deep breath in and out. Slowly, she unclipped her lightsaber from her belt and hit the activation switch. Blue light shot out of the end of the saber and into the sandy dirt ground.

Ren’s custom Tie came into view from beyond a series of large rocks, moving full speed in her direction. Rey readied herself, she turned to face away from the incoming Tie. She had to time this correctly, or she would miss her opportunity to ruin his ship. After five-full seconds, which seemed to last five years, Rey began to run. She used the extra strength from the force to will her legs to go faster, much like she’d done on the training course.

The ship was almost on top of her, it was now or never. Rey took a running jump, flipping herself over. Almost as if she was in slow motion, Rey looked down at the Tie Fighter below her. Reaching out her arm holding the saber, she took an even slice out of the left wing of the ship. Rey landed with one knee on the ground to brace her fall. She quickly looked up, one wing of the ship was tilted, about to break apart. It sent the ship crashing into a rock, and Rey had a wild moment of worry.

_Was he okay?_

Rey tried to push the thought out of her head. But she only had a moment, during which she noticed the Stormtroopers moving in her direction, before she saw Ren emerging from the place where his ship had crash landed. His cape was on fire, and he quickly removed it, but he looked otherwise unhurt.

The Stormtroopers came close, but didn’t get within ten feet of Rey. She suspected that they were waiting for orders. The time it took for him to get within talking distance of Rey seemed to take both eons and seconds. When he got close enough that Rey could see the bleeding cut on his cheek ( _stop worrying about him,_ she thought) Rey ignited her lightsaber. She could have begun their interaction with the fake surrender, but Rey wanted to give her friends more time to sneak around the First Order troops. Rey quickly put her feelings for them out of her mind, lest Ren catch on to their plan.

Once Ren lit his own saber, Rey lunged forward to attack. She swung her lightsaber above her head and brought it crashing down, Ren caught the blow with his own saber and used it to push Rey back. She continued forward, undeterred. Using a variety of attack formations, Rey hoped that she could catch him off guard in any way even though she knew this fight had to end with her as the loser. Avoiding injury or death would be the tricky part.

The thing was though, Ren rarely used any attack forms himself. He mostly used defensive tactics, or resorted to pushing Rey backwards.

The sand around them was starting to dust up, making Rey’s eyes sting. She was also getting tired. Perhaps Ren sensed this, because while his blocks and disarming attempts were getting stronger, the pauses between each blow were getting longer. Rey used an attack swing from the side, which Ren blocked and sent her staggering to the side a bit. She steadied herself and shook out her hand, which was starting to ache, but Ren didn’t offer any attacks. Rey tried again, this time swinging her saber above her head. When she brought it down, Ren met the blow with his saber and caught her own locked in the cross guard of his.

Rey attempted to pull her saber away, but Ren held her there. She looked in his eyes fully for the first time since she had started this fight. She had cried out for him in the vision, when she had been the most scared.

Ren sensed this change in emotion from her, and used his saber to spin her to the opposite side of him and throw her to the ground. Rey’s hand was aching so much that she accidentally released her saber and she watched as it tumbled through the dust to land near Ren’s feet. Before she could call it back to her, Ren stomped down on it with his foot, not to break it but to keep her from acquiring it again.

Rey looked up at him, still sprawled in the dirt. He looked back down at her with a curious expression in his eyes, he hadn’t deactivated his lightsaber.

“I’ll go with you,” Rey huffed, out of breath from the extensive fight she had just lost. Ren squinted at her, turning his head slightly to the side like an animal. But he didn’t question her. He bent down to pick up Rey’s lightsaber and then grabbed Rey herself by the arm, dragging her to her feet. Once they were both standing face to face Rey noticed that Ren looked a bit amused. The corners of his mouth were tilted up in the smallest of smiles. But then he swung her around to face the Stormtroopers and pushed her forward.

“You walk ahead,” He said, indicating that she should get going. The squadron of troopers flanked her on either side, but she walked freely towards their transports. Ren was behind her, holding her lightsaber hilt in one hand, and his lit saber in the other.

When they reached the transports half of the Stormtrooper squadron got on one transport, and half on the other. Rey stood watching them go in until Ren took her arm again and led her to the transport on the left. Once inside, Rey turned around to see the large doors closing, the sunlight getting smaller and smaller until it was gone altogether.

Rey chanced a quick glance up at Ren, who was staring straight forward. Rey looked down, and as she did so Ren glanced down at her. His gaze lingered for longer than Rey’s had, but he looked away all the same. They stood there in silence as the transport shook a few times before taking off into the sky.


	8. The Conversation

“Did you see her slice his ship? That was amazing and terrifying all at once,” Rose whispered to the group as they moved as fast as they could through the sandy valley of Pasana. Chewie growled in appreciation of Rey’s quick thinking and skills, but Finn and Poe were silent. The last they had seen of Rey was her being pushed to the ground by Ren, and Finn wasn’t sure he could stand how worried he was. Perhaps Rose could tell what he was thinking, because she continued talking.

“You guys haven’t been around to see Rey training, she is really good. I’ve watched her take on that obstacle course every day, usually more than once. I don’t even remember the last time she couldn’t beat it.” Rose told the boys confidently, but she did hold back the fact that Rey had just recently confided in her that she had had some issues finishing the obstacle course. Nobody was perfect though, and Rose was sure that Rey knew what she was doing.

“Hold up hold up!” Poe whispered urgently, trying to stop the group from moving forward. He had spotted a couple of Stormtroopers right ahead of them. Poe was too late though, they were out in the open and had no way of hiding.

“Hey! What are you doing out here?” The troopers questioned.

Before Poe and Rose could pull out their blasters, Finn stepped in front of them as calm as anything and said, “It’s okay that we’re here.”

The troopers seemed to pause, and then both said in a monotone voice, “It’s okay that you’re here.”

Finn couldn’t believe his luck, and decided to push it by continuing, “You will let us pass, and not tell anyone you saw us.”

“Nothing to see here, move along.” One of the troopers said, while the other stepped to the side. Finn hurried forward, while his friends stayed put. When Finn turned around, they were staring at him open mouthed.

“Come on, we need to get to the ship!” Finn said urgently, and the others started moving without any change of expression.

Rose was finally the one to break the silence when she said, “When the frack where you going to tell us you could do _that_?”

Poe caught up to Finn and squeezed his hand, “Was that what you wanted to tell Rey?”

“Yeah,” Finn confirmed. “Why didn’t you want to tell me?” Poe continued, sounding a bit hurt.

“I don’t know, it’s an off-putting feeling to have a power that you don’t know what to do with. I really need Rey’s help, but please don’t tell her yet. I want to do it myself.” Finn said apologetically.

“We won’t say anything.” Rose assured him, and Chewie growled his promise as well.

“Let’s just get to that ship so you have a chance to tell her, huh?” Poe said, reluctantly letting go of Finn’s hand as they started moving at a run.

******

Rey felt a bit disoriented once the doors to the transport were opened and she was no longer on a brightly lit planet but in the cold and dark hanger bay of a Star Destroyer. Looking around, she saw that they were not in a hanger that contained any fighter ships. She would have to search for one then, in case she needed a back-up plan.

“Come with me.” Ren said gruffly, grabbing Rey’s arm just under her shoulder and leading her somewhere unknown. Ren’s legs were longer than Rey’s, and she had to take twice the steps as him to keep up. They walked down a long hallway out of the hanger bay, passing groups of troopers and First Order officers. None of them dared stare at the pair, but Rey could sense their apprehension and curiosity.

They took and left turn and two right turns before arriving at a door, which Ren opened with a wave of his hand. He threw Rey inside and followed her in, shutting the door behind them. It was fortunate that Rey had been practicing her agility for so long, because the room they were in opened directly to a set of stairs. Rey kept herself upright instead of tumbling down them, but she still wished she could have made a more confident first impression.

Ren ignored her for a moment, taking his helmet that he had been holding in his hand and slamming it down on a desk. Rey looked around the room, it was completely white, including all the furniture. In the corner of the room stood the mask of Darth Vader, completely twisted and half melted. Ren spoke first.

“What are you doing?” He asked. Rey was confused by the question, why did he care?

“I wasn’t going to win, and I felt like walking on my own this time.” She answered, crossing her arms.

“That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing, you don’t want to join me. You’ve made yourself extremely clear on that.” Ren said crossly.

“You can still join me, the offer still stands.” Rey said. To her surprise, Ren appeared to deflate a bit.

“It’s too late for me, I can never go back. I’ve done things…” Ren trailed off. This was not going how Rey expected. She had completely closed herself off to the idea of saving Ben Solo, that ship had sailed when he refused to call off the attack on her friends while on Snoke’s ship over a year ago. But the opportunity to do so appeared to be opening again. She chose her next words carefully.

“Ben,” She started, using his real name. He looked up at her. “Have you ever heard of a force dyad?” Rey asked.

“You think that’s what we are?” Ren said, some disdain creeping into his voice.

“I know that’s what we are, equal parts light and darkness. I read about them in the books from Luke,” Ren flinched when Rey mentioned Luke, but she continued. “I think he was right when he said the Jedi needed to end, they weren’t right about the force. And neither were the Sith. You can’t be all dark or all light, you need to have a balance. Ben listen-” But he cut her off.

“Don’t call me that here, you don’t say that name on this ship!” He yelled, Rey had slowly been walking towards him while she was speaking, but she jumped back a few steps at his outburst. With a jolt of panic, Rey realized she still needed to call her friends and let them know they were clear to come get her. If she didn’t do it soon, the ship could jump into hyperspace. And while the First Order could track the Resistance, the Falcon would definitely not be able to track a Star Destroyer, and Rey wasn’t sure about the reliability of the communicators across such long distances.

“Communicator?” Ren said angrily, Rey could have slapped herself at not covering up her thoughts.

Ren held up his arm and called the communicator to him, it leapt out of Rey’s belt. But she held her arm as well, stopping the communicator from going to him. It hung there between them for a moment, but in a fit of rage Ren slammed his arm down. Rey couldn’t help but slam her arm down as well, quickly pulling it back up as though a magnetic connection had been severed. The communicator slammed to the ground and shattered.

“There’s nothing I can do about the light, the decisions I’ve made are too much for forgiveness.” Ren said, getting closer to Rey. He was distracted by his emotions, and Rey caught him off guard by reaching out again and calling her lightsaber to herself. She lit it and used her other hand the force push Ren backwards, he collided with the Vader helmet and it skid across the floor.

Without looking back, Rey bolted up the stairs and waved her hand to open the door. She burst out into the hallway, mercifully there was no one around. She used the force to slam the door shut behind her, denting it a bit so that it would be harder to open. Not that it would stop Ren, but maybe it would slow him down. Rey tried to keep her composure, how was she going to get ahold of Finn and the others?

Sprinting down the hallway, Rey force pushed back a few groups of Stormtroopers. When she came to an empty hallway, Rey stopped to catch her breath. She closed her eyes and pictured Finn, hopefully back at the Falcon.

_I’m here, I’m fine for now. Get to the large ship hanger bay and I will meet you there._

Rey desperately hoped that the force would carry her message to Finn. From down the hallway, she heard the faint sounds of a crackling, untamed lightsaber. There was nowhere for Rey to hide, she was going to have to fight.

******

Poe and Chewie were seated in the pilot and co-pilot seats on the Falcon, Finn and Rose were sat behind them. No one was speaking, they were all waiting for Rey to tell them they could fly up to the ship.

Finn had been hunched over with his head resting on the hands, but he sat upright abruptly.

“You okay buddy?” Poe asked, turning around.

“Rey’s at the large hanger bay on the ship, we need to go now.” Finn said, a faraway look in his eye. After seeing Finn convince those Stormtroopers using the force, Poe didn’t even think to question him.

“Let’s do it,” Poe said, getting ready to take the Falcon into the air. “You guys wanna get on the gunners?” Poe asked Finn and Rose, who both stood up quickly and moved to their respective gunner spots. Rose at the top gunner and Finn at the bottom. As Finn moved down the hallway and climbed down the ladder to his seat, he thought _don’t worry Rey, we’re coming._ He still didn’t really know how the force worked, but he hoped she got the message.


	9. The Decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can not even begin to explain how wonderful it has been to receive all the positive comments you all have been giving this story! The Star Wars fandom can get pretty argumentative, but every comment I've gotten has been wonderful and it makes me so happy to see them. Thank you all for reading along, I hope you enjoy this chapter and have a happy new year!

Rey could hear the crackle of Ren’s lightsaber advancing down the hallway straight ahead of her. She kept facing his direction, but continued to back down the hallway towards what she hoped was the main hanger bay. They’d taken a left and two rights, Rey was sure she followed the same pathway back. But as she continued moving backwards, she found herself in an open air cavernous section of the Star Fighter. Chancing a glance to either side of her, Rey saw the hanger in which Finn and her friends were hopefully on their way towards.

The issue was that Rey was on a narrow walkway with a distance too far even for her to jump to get to the hanger, and the ground below the walkway was fathoms deep. She couldn’t even see the ground. Rey jumped up and down a couple times and shook her shoulders a bit.

_I can do this, I can do this,_ she thought to herself.

Rey wasn’t surprised by Ren’s appearance once he came into her line of sight, she’d been able to feel his force presence as if he were standing next to her the entire time she’d been on the ship. He didn’t hesitate on his approach, moving quickly towards Rey. The fear she had felt when she first saw him so long ago on Takodana as he approached her was missing this time. Rey realized the only thing she felt upon seeing him was sadness.

He lifted his blade up and swung it down, but Rey blocked him. The stood staring at each other, their blades locked and the heat from both sabers hitting their faces uncomfortably.

“You’re not angry Ben, you’re scared.” Rey said quietly, he broke their hold and came at her again with his blade from the side. Rey caught it once again, she ducked around so that she could use the railing on the side of the walkway as leverage. They were locked in a hold again.

“You should be angry, you should be angry at me and feel nothing else.” Ren spat. Reinforcements in the form of Stormtroopers began to arrive on the scene, but Ren shouted, “GET OUT” at them. They scurried away without needing to be told twice.

Rey brought her foot up and kicked him backwards, her foot connecting with his broad chest. She started running down the walkway, but felt a pull from the force that sent her banging to the ground. Rey didn’t lose her saber this time though, and she turned herself over and blocked another blow from Ren while still in her position laying on the ground.

“The light wants you back Ben, you can hear it calling to you.” Rey was straining a bit from the effort to keep her saber raised, she couldn’t use her muscles as well from the ground. She could tell that her words were having an effect on Ren, his force signature and his face were both displaying sheer panic.

“I tried to murder your friends, I’ve tortured the only people who truly care about you.” Rey knew that he was using these words to guard himself and make Rey angry at him, but she couldn’t help that they were getting to her a bit. Holding onto her saber with one hand, Rey used the other to force push Ren away from her and allowing Rey a moment to leap to her feet. He was back quicker than she thought he would be though, and this time he brought his saber down in attack formations quickly and repeatedly. It wasn’t any form of fighting style, it was just pure emotion.

“That’s Kylo Ren, not you Ben!” Rey yelled haltingly, as she was forced to retreat backwards step by step with each subsequent attack from Ren.

“And I’ll kill your friends when they get here. I’ll run them through with my saber and then toss them out into space. I’ll wait to kill FN-2187 last so he can watch as I kill all of them and then you.” Ren was shouting at her through his blows, and somewhere in Rey’s mind she knew that his words were coming from that place of panic. But the way he said them with such malice sent Rey into an angry state herself. Rey had been in retreat for this fight, but she readily moved into attack formations herself.

Ren was shocked for a moment when Rey started returning his attacks with vigor, but that had been what he wanted wasn’t it? He didn’t want to focus on all the words he didn’t say, about how scared he was at the prospect of just being Ben again. About how he could never be accepted after what he’d done, no matter how much kindness he had shown to Rey in the past when she had been so lonely on that island with Luke.

He caught sight of something shimmering on the other end of the walkway over Rey’s head. It was the figure of a person that was slowly coming into shape, faint at first but growing brighter every second. Ren’s movements slowed as he realized who he was looking at.

“Mom?” He said, in the quietest words possible, his voice shaking a bit.

But in the next moment he gasped, a burst of pain emanating from his lower abdomen. Ren looked down to see a lightsaber impaled in his stomach. He looked up at Rey, and saw the shocked expression on her face before he collapsed down into a sitting position.

Rey was horrified, she hadn’t meant…she thought he would block her. But did she think that? Or did the darkness in her take over. She looked down at Ren, who had started breathing heavily. Rey felt every dredge of anger leave her system, he hadn’t meant those words. He was scared, and she wasn’t thinking rationally.

Without stopping to think, Rey dropped to her knees. Ren wasn’t looking at her, he was looking over her shoulder. But Rey didn’t care who saw what she was about to do. She gently placed her hand near the wound she had inflicted on Ren, and focused her energy into healing him. It required a significant amount of energy more than it had any other time she healed someone using the force. But her emotions were high enough that she needn’t have worried about her ability to fully heal him.

Rey looked down at the place where the wound had been, it was completely healed. But Ren was still not looking at her. Rey glanced around and to her great shock, she saw Leia standing behind her.

“Leia!” Rey said, quickly getting to her feet. “How are you here?” She questioned.

Leia smiled at her and said, “I’m not here. I’m with the Resistance.”

“But how…” Rey began, but then she realized. Leia was force projecting herself. Ren slowly got to his feet behind the two women, and Rey edged herself out of the way to let them get closer to each other. Ren hung his head low, appearing to be ashamed of himself. Leia stepped closer to him and took one of his hands in both of her own.

“I forgive you.” She said. Ren seemed to be unable to meet his mother’s eyes.

“But Mom, what I did to Dad…” He mumbled while his voice continued to shake. Leia was shaking her head no.

“You’re right to be sorry about that, but still I forgive you. You can redeem yourself still, there’s nothing stopping you.” Leia said reassuringly.

“Everything’s stopping me.” Ren said, finally breaking down enough that Rey could tell he had begun to cry.

“I’d wager there’s at least one thing in this room that’s not stopping you. In fact, I think she may be trying to help you.” Leia said, smiling through her words. Although Rey could tell that Leia was getting choked up too. Ren had begun to cry in earnest, and Leia reached up one hand and placed it on her son’s cheek.

“Mom, you’re going to die. Force projecting is too much…” Ren said, his voice trailing off. Rey had begun to cry as well.

“Leia-” Rey started. Leia turned to look at Rey and gave her a reassuring smile before turning back to her son.

“Don’t forget, no one’s ever really gone.” Leia whispered to the both of them.

“Mom…” Kylo started, looking around for the right words.

“I know.” Leia told him, beaming through the tears on her cheeks. And then she was fading away, and Ren was looking down at nothing. He and Rey stood in silence for a moment before they both felt it, the devastating pull from the force that told them Leia was gone.

At the same moment, the Falcon appeared, bursting into the empty hanger bay and hovering there. Rey could see the ramp on the ship lowering, they weren’t going to cut the engine so that they could make a quicker escape.

Choking back a sob, Rey turned around and held out her hand without saying a word.

There were still tears in his eyes as he looked down at Rey’s hand. There was only one decision he could make, and it seemed like the universe fell into place as soon as he had made it.

Ben took Rey’s hand, and together they raced through the walkway and towards the waiting Falcon.


	10. Roundabout

“Do you trust me?” Rey yelled into the depths of the Falcon as she pulled Ben up the ramp, none of her friends were in sight. They were probably all in their respective positions on the ship ready to go, Chewie and Poe in the cockpit and Finn and Rose at the gunners. When Rey looked up at Ben, she saw not the usual look: steely, unreadable, about to bubble over with anger.

Instead, he actually looked _nervous_. It was mixed in with the sadness that Rey felt as well, she still had tear tracks down her face.

Without waiting for her friends to answer, Rey slammed her hand down on the ramp load button and yelled out, “Go!”. When she felt the ship start to gear up beneath her feet for a light speed jump, Rey looked at Ben again. He had quickly removed the top layer of his outfit, a kind of long padded vest that gave the illusion that he was prepared to enter a battle at any moment. He now stood before Rey in just a dark long sleeve shirt and loose black pants.

He looked equal parts vulnerable and more approachable, despite the tense circumstances Rey felt her heart flutter and cheeks grow warmer. Shoving her feelings down, Rey stepped forward and grabbed Ben’s hand. She could hear two pairs of feet stomping towards them, and Rey stepped forward so that she was standing directly in front of Ben.

Finn and Poe appeared, both holding their blasters up. When they saw that they were aiming them at Rey, the boys lowered their blasters but didn’t holster them. They were wearing matching expressions of anger and confusion, through the force Rey could tell that they were hiding their hurt feelings as well.

“I trust you with my life Rey, but him?” Finn said pleadingly, “You haven’t seen some of the things that he’s done, but I have. And they are unspeakably awful.”

Ben surprised Rey by speaking directly to Finn, “You’re right, the things I’ve done in the past…they make me a monster. And I’m going to accept any punishment that the Resistance sees fit, but I can’t go on with the First Order, and what Palpatine wants me to do…there’s no way.” Ben finished, staring down at his shoes.

Rey could sense Finn’s resolve to hate Ben coming down a bit, but Poe’s face remained impassive. “What does Palpatine want you to do?” Poe questioned.

Rey’s heart skipped a beat as Ben said, “He promised ships and reinforcements if I killed the last Jedi. If I killed Rey.” Rey’s heart was hammering as she looked back at Ben to watch him explain, and it must have read on her face because Finn said, “You knew about this?”

“I didn’t want you to worry.” Rey murmured. But Finn and Poe didn’t have a chance to question her any farther, because just then a resounding BANG hit the ship and the Falcon shuddered and careened wildly to the right. Finn and Poe went crashing into the wall of the hallway they were standing in. Rey nearly went crashing into the ground, but Ben caught her arm and pulled her to his chest.

Standing chest to chest with Ben, Rey noticed that his eyes were the same color as Leia’s.

But then he was running with Poe into the cockpit, and Finn was hurrying down the ladder to the lower gunner position. Rey shook her head once, before running into the cockpit herself.

Chewie was yelling at Poe about the compressor and actively ignoring Ben, who was standing behind them clutching Poe’s seat while staring out towards the ships firing at them. Rey looked between the two of them for a moment before saying, “Chewie, give Ben your seat.”

Chewie yelled something at Rey about her losing her mind and no way was he going to let that boy fly Han’s ship.

“Chewie, please. He’ll be the best one to get us out of here in one piece.” Rey pleaded.

“At best we’re getting out of here in two pieces, the shields are down and we’re taking every hit in full.” Poe told them angrily. Chewie huffed about it, but he got out of his seat. Ben took his seat immediately, and Rey closed her eyes as she felt a quick memory that didn’t belong to her. Ben was sitting in the same seat, but he was much younger. Han was sitting where Poe was, the father and son grinned at each other.

But it was just a memory. Rey tore herself out of the cockpit and into the engine room to try and repair any failing systems as they went.

Poe didn’t like it, but he and Ben flew well together. Probably due to them using the same flight simulator as boys. They had never gotten a chance to fly together for real, Ben was shuttled away to Luke’s academy and Poe hadn’t seen him again until a fateful night in the desert of Jakku.

“There’s a planet less than a parsec away from us.” Poe said, keeping his eyes anywhere but where Ben was sitting.

“They won’t be able to track us if we do a roundabout light speed skip.” Ben said calmly, easily weaving the ship around the Tie Fighter’s.

“Rey won’t be happy about the light speed skipping.” Poe said.

“I think she’ll be fine with it when she’s not blasted to pieces in a ship with no shields and a failing compressor.” Ben replied.

Ben grabbed onto the lever that would take them to light speed, and Poe concentrated on not aiming his blaster at Ben and firing. The stars turned to streaks around them and the Falcon and its occupants went hurtling forward into space, but stopped almost immediately. Ben was ready with one hand on the light speed lever and the steering lever. He pulled both at the same time and they jumped forward again. Turning while jumping into light speed was dangerous, Poe had only tried it himself once, and he was in his X-Wing, not an older freighter like the Falcon.

It was a good thing that Poe had his safety belt on, otherwise he would have been tossed into the wall. Chewie ended up in the aisle, and he grumbled his annoyance. A quick yelp from farther back in the ship told Poe that Rey had also been unprepared for the quick turnaround. Poe noticed that Ben’s eyes shifted to the hallway behind them when he heard Rey’s yell. But he continued with his directive, and pulled them out of light speed again.

Ben was right, Poe had to give him that. They were soaring under a dark planet covered with lights from large settlements and cities. Poe wanted to say thank you, but the words seemed to be stuck somewhere between his brain and his mouth.

“I accept your thanks, bring us in to land.” Ben said, standing up and heading into the ship, leaving Poe and Chewie to stare silently at each other and wonder what had just happened as warning lights from the Falcon flashed around them. Ben walked quickly through the ship and found who he was looking for.

Rey was still crouched in front of one of the engine panels in the main hull of the ship, her fingers quickly moving about as she attempted to fix one of the many issues that the Falcon had acquired since leaving the Star Destroyer. Doubtless she could sense that he was there, but Rey was electing to ignore him as she worked. She also had no idea what to say to him.

They stood there in silence, Ben watching Rey work and Rey ignoring him. Ben noticed she had a small cut on the side of her face, and a bruise starting to form. It must have been from the light speed skip, and Ben felt a pang of regret at not giving her a warning.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Rey said, so quietly that Ben almost missed it. He slowly and cautiously took a few steps forward so that he was standing right next to Rey and crouched down so that their faces were even. Rey couldn’t ignore him any longer, so she turned to look at him.

Neither knew what to say. Rey couldn’t keep Leia out of her mind as she looked in to Ben’s eyes. Ben raised his hand and gently cradled her cheek, using his thumb to stroke her bruise. Rey closed her eyes at his touch. For a moment her worries weren’t there, it was a blissful second of freedom from all the stress of the last year.

But then Rey jumped back as though shocked, landing in a sitting position on the ground as she looked past Ben. He turned and saw Poe, Chewie, Finn, and Rose all standing a few feet away and staring at the pair. Finn and Poe look mutinous, but Rose surprisingly let out a small giggle before clapping her hand over her mouth. Rey looked down at her feet, and despite everything telling her not to, Rey smiled as well.


	11. Memories

“Where have we landed?” Rey questioned loudly as she stood up to check the Falcon’s central controls, she was trying to smooth over the moment that had just passed between her and Ben. Without making eye contact with her friends, Rey brushed past them and continued with, “Well?” when no one responded.

“Kijimi” Poe said tightly.

“What’s the story here?” Rey asked, multitasking as she read through each of the Falcon’s failing systems. She let out a huff of annoyance, this would take forever to fix.

“It’s a hub for spice runners mostly, it was taken over by the First Order a few years back but that hasn’t stopped any illegal trading going on.” Poe informed them all. He seemed nervous, even beyond the fact that the Supreme Leader of the First Order was standing just feet away from him.

“You been here before?” Rose asked Poe, she was sitting on the couch next to the holochess board.

“I, er…spent some time here back when I was a pilot for the Republic. I’m sure they’re not here anymore though…” Poe trailed off.

“They?” Finn said, trying to prod Poe into continuing his thought.

“It doesn’t matter. There’s still enough back door dealings going on here that it shouldn’t be too hard to find some under the table help with repairs and parts for the ship. Finn, you and Rose want to come with me? Rey and Chewie can stay here and start working on repairs.” Poe was digging around in the compartments underneath the benches as he was relaying his plan to the group, and he pulled out three cold-weather jackets. He tossed them to Finn and Rose without waiting for confirmation from the others about his plan.

Ben said nothing about his presence not being addressed, but Rey started forward with a huff and intending to make her case for why she should go with them. But Poe cut her off before she could start.

“Everyone in the galaxy knows what your face looks like Rey, you’ve heard the transmissions.” Poe told her as he pulled the hood of the jacket up over his head. What he said was true, the entire First Order-controlled galaxy had been receiving a broadcast for the past year asking for information on the scavenger known as “Rey” along with a holo of her face.

Rey was fuming, but Poe didn’t offer any more opportunities for her to argue as he lowered the ships ramp. Finn shrugged at her and followed Poe, while Rose gave her a pat on the arm and a sympathetic smile.

“It’s because they care about you.” Rose offered as consolation.

“Yeah, and they hate me.” Rey said dejectedly.

“That too, but it’ll pass.” Rose said cheerfully.

“Rose!” Poe called from outside the ship, and she turned to get going, casting a quick nervous glance at Ben as she did. Rey walked to the top of the ramp to see her friends walk out of sight.

_I haven’t done anything to them, why are they angry with me?_ Rey thought. She and Poe got into spats all the time, mostly about the Falcon and occasionally about her role within the Resistance. But Finn was never angry with her, and him being upset made Rey’s stomach twist itself into a multitude of knots. Chewie growled to get her attention, he was going to get on top of the ship to work on the shields.

“I’ll keep working on the engines, thanks Chewie.” Rey said as he stomped away, bumping into Ben’s shoulder as he did.

Rey walked slowly back to her place in front of the main control panel, and she felt Ben move in her direction.

“Should we tell them about her?” He asked softly, avoiding saying Leia’s name. Tears threatened to spill over again, but Rey blinked rapidly to avoid them. Her voice only wavered a bit when she said, “They’re already upset.”

Ben watched her work for a while. He admired the way she lost herself in her work, the little crease between her forehead that stayed put while she worked through a difficult spot. The ease with which Rey communicated with the ship. _This damn ship,_ Ben thought. His childhood memories were spotty, due to a combination of time and the influence of the dark side. But the most joyful memories were in this ship, flying with his father. Ben remembered almost none of the destinations, only the trips.

“Aren’t you here because you want to be helpful? Or do you just want to watch me do all the work.” Rey called, sharply pulling him out of his memories. He looked down at the panel he was standing on and saw that there was smoke coming out from between the grates. Ben stepped back and pulled the panel away before stepping down into the bottom layer of the ship to work on whatever problem was occurring below.

As soon as he was out of sight Rey turned to look at where he had just been standing. His presence was still a bit frightening to her, but maybe it was just his height. There was nothing else she could do with the main controls, she needed at least three new parts for central control itself. Sighing, Rey walked over to where Ben had gone down to work on the ship. She jumped down to stand beside him.

Her sudden appearance hadn’t shocked him, and Ben simply moved his body slightly to the side so that Rey had room to sidle up next to him and assist. They worked in silence for an undetermined amount of time, but they were both sweating by the time their conversation picked up.

“I can tell that you’re changed, your force signature is different. It’s calmer, and lighter somehow. But my friends can’t tell that, you’re going to have to keep proving to them that you’re on our side.” Rey muttered, her hands attempting to tighten a bolt that was emitting an unpleasant amount of warm steam directly into her face.

“I can do that, but I don’t know about convincing the entire Resistance. I’m going to have to stand trial, and with my record it’s likely that they’ll either sentence me to prison for the rest of my life or banish me to some uninhabited planet.” Ben said, gently moving Rey’s hands aside and tightening the bolt himself. They both sat back, the ship’s engine repaired enough for now.

They sat on the floor so close to each other their knees were touching, but neither pulled back.

“Poe will be the general now,” Rey said, her voice soft. “Convince him that you’ve changed and it’ll be a big swing in favor of you.”

Ben looked thoughtful, “Did you know that Poe and I were friends when we were kids?” He asked Rey.

Rey was shocked as she replied, “He never told me that.”

“His parents were both pilots, and they were friends with my mom and dad. Poe’s parents would go off on missions, and he would stay with my family. It would mostly be me, him, and my dad. He’d help us practice with the flight simulator, and let us run around on the Falcon. Or we’d play outside. Yavin-4 was a great place for a child to grow up, lots of trees to climb and hiding spots if you were looking to keep your friend from having to go home.” Ben told her. He could feel Rey’s pangs of sadness, which were there both for herself and him.

Of course that would make Rey sad, she had grown up alone and in the desert. But Ben could tell that her feelings of sadness were mostly for him. How extraordinary that she still had empathy for others after all she had gone through in her life.

“I hope I don’t sound like I’m bragging.” Ben said. Rey looked down at her boots and began twiddling with a string hanging off them.

“I don’t remember anything before Jakku, so there’s nothing to miss. I worked for Unkar Plutt first in his shop, then with the rest of the scavengers when I was about ten. I started making my own home a couple years after that.” Rey told him.

“Were there ever any others?” Ben questioned, even though he was sure he knew the answer.

“I had allies occasionally, but we were all in it for ourselves. It was survival mode I guess. I broke my ankle once, I fell about twelve feet in the old Star Destroyer. It was still the daytime so there were others looking for parts too, but no one would help me. They would have lost a day’s earnings if they had to carry me back with them. But that was the night that I found my land speeder, so joke was on them I suppose.” Rey didn’t sound sad at this memory, it was like she was examining it from someone else’s perspective.

Ben didn’t know what to say to her, so they sat in silence again. It wasn’t uncomfortable silence though.

“Rey…” Ben started, but she held up her hand to cut him off. She had a faraway look in her eyes as she stood up.

“Stay here.” Rey said as she climbed up onto the main portion of the Falcon. That world-slowing feeling was happening, as if she was about to connect with Ben. But he was right here, they’d been sitting close enough to touch.

“Rey?” She could hear Ben calling to her as if he were at the other end of a long tunnel, his voice echoing eerily in her mind. And suddenly she was in that open ended room again.

This time, Rey was determined not to show her fear even as the darkness began creeping towards her. She marched forward, ignoring the feeling of darkness thickening around her as she got closer to the center of the room. Lightning was flashing overhead, and Rey called out, “What do you want?”

The cackling laugh echoed around the room, but the Emperor was not in sight. Rey turned repeatedly on the spot to avoid being snuck up on.

“You have all you need to find me, child. Why are you not here?” The voice boomed all around her. Rey felt the presence of more dark souls rising around her, but she elected to ignore it and waited for the Emperor to continue.

“Too scared to confront me?” He taunted. Rey took the bait and said, “No!” As forcefully as she could. The Emperor cackled again.

“I have seen your friends, and the Resistance.” The Emperor said, and Rey felt a stinging pain in her mind as she was unwillingly shown images of the entire Resistance base, they were in mourning. Rey felt their sadness collectively and couldn’t help the few tears that ran down her cheeks. The images changed again and she saw Finn, Poe, and Rose in an unfamiliar workshop. Poe was hastily negotiating with a masked figure, he had both of his hands up. Rey’s fear kicked itself up a notch, and oddly enough at the same moment Finn turned his head and appeared to look right at her.

But then Rey was brought back into the dark hall, and the Emperor was in front of her now. She couldn’t help jumping back a few steps.

“You will come to me now, on your own. Or I will destroy them all.” The Emperor smiled as he said it. His presence was too much, and Rey turned to run. But then she was back with the Falcon. More accurately, she was outside the Falcon. The stinging headache was still there, but Rey was made acutely aware that she was standing in the middle of the snow with no coat on.

“Rey?” Ben called again, she wondered how many times he had called her. Just like the last time she had seen the Emperor, Rey was apparently rooted to the spot. Ben exited the ship and strode the few steps to reach where Rey was standing. He stood in front of her and bent down so that they were eye to eye, his hands were gripping the sides of both her arms.

“What happened?” He asked. Rey turned her head to completely face him, and they locked eyes.

“I saw…” Rey started, but trailed off. Ben took her hand and led her back into the Falcon, once inside he dug around in the same compartment that Poe had found the jackets in and pulled out a blanket. He threw it over Rey shoulders as they sat down together on the bench. He waited for Rey to say something.

There was no way she could tell anyone what the Emperor had said, he knew where they were. The only option was for Rey to sneak off on her own, which was going to be tricky considering there was only one available ship and it was currently out of service.

“We need to fix the ship.” Rey whispered.


	12. Meditation

“Poe we need to go back, something’s wrong.” Finn said suddenly.

“In the middle of something right now buddy.” Poe said distractedly, his hands held aloft as the blaster in front of him was currently aimed at his chest. In their search for aid with the Falcon’s repairs Poe, Finn, and Rose had run into the exact people that Poe was hoping to avoid. Zorri, as stubborn as ever, was holding the blaster aimed at Poe. Her expression was unreadable, entirely due to the fact that her face was obscured completely by a helmet. Although Poe could guess that her brown eyes were narrowed with shock and anger, eyebrows scrunched up. Poe knew that if she removed her helmet her curly hair would spring up, even while pulled back in her usual ponytail.

“Whatever Poe owes you, I’m sure the Resistance can help pay it off.” Rose interjected, trying to clear up this confrontation.

“Hard to pay off a betrayal of trust, isn’t it?” Zorri said, blaster unmoving. From behind him, Poe felt Rose give him a small shove.

“What did you do, flyboy?” Rose asked, annoyance trancing each word. Poe sighed, “It’s a long story.”

The heard Zorri chuckle darkly, “It’s not really, when you think about it Poe. He was sent here to arrest my crew, back when he was with the Republic.”

“I didn’t though, did I?” Poe complained. At his words Zorri lowered the blaster, but marched forward towards him, her index finger pointed accusingly at his face. The forcefulness of her presence caused Poe to take a cautionary step backwards onto Rose’s foot.

“He pretended to be a part of the crew, he stayed with us for _months_ helping us run spice off world. We thought of him as our family and then we find out that he was going to betray us!” Zorri said as loud as she could without drawing too much attention to the huddled group.

“I was doing my job Zorri,” Poe said, pushing her hand out of his face. “I couldn’t go through with it when I saw what you were doing with the money.”

“What were you doing with the money?” Rose asked.

“The majority of it we gave to the families whose children were taken by the Stormtrooper program.” Zorri told her. At these words, Finn’s attention was brought back to the group.

“They took kids from this planet?” Finn questioned. Zorri nodded in response, while Poe pressed on.

“I’m sorry Zorri, okay? I didn’t want to leave without telling you the truth, and the Resistance needed pilots. At least I didn’t just drop off the face of the planet without telling you anything.”

Zorri paused, Poe was unsure if she was actually going to drop the issue or not.

“Why are you here?” Zorri asked flatly. Grateful that she hadn’t put a hole in his chest, Poe said, “We need help with repairs and parts for our ship. We’re on Resistance business.”

While Poe and Zorri discussed logistics, Finn pulled on Rose’s arm and she turned to look at him.

“I think I need to go back to the ship.” Finn said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea Finn, we shouldn’t be walking around on our own here with all the First Order business going on.” Rose said, attempting to shoot his idea down.

“I felt something though, I think Rey needs help in some way.” Finn said, trying to find the right words.

“Rey is fine on her own, she barely needs our help. We’re here to essentially shoot down any outrageous or deathly dangerous ideas she has and to be her friends.” Rose told him as she turned back to the conversation with Poe and Zorri.

“That’s what I’m worried about.” Finn muttered to himself.

******

Rey wasn’t too sure how the force connection between her and Ben worked, but she hoped that she was blocking him enough that he couldn’t tell that she was forming a plan. Seeing as this was a planet for criminals, it wouldn’t be too hard to find a small ship to temporarily borrow without permission. She would bring the Holocron they’d found on Pasana and deal with the Emperor herself, just as he asked. Rey hated the idea that she was doing exactly as he said, it felt like she was walking into a trap. But what choice did she have when her friends were at stake?

The only problem was Ben, he was following her around like a droid and Rey was having a hard time coming up with an adequate distraction. She mulled it over while they sat together in the cockpit of the Falcon, Chewie could be heard overhead banging something back into place on the outside of the Falcon. Rey was sitting diagonally in the pilot’s seat, her feet dangling over the edge as she swung her legs back and forth absent-mindedly.

Ben sat in the row behind her. He was staring at her hair, noticing that it looked different now. She used to wear it tied back in three buns, save for the time in Snoke’s throne room when it had hung down on her shoulders. It was longer now, and she had it tied back in a braid this time. The pattern of the braid was simple and intricate at the same time, the front of her hair separated into four small braids that framed her face that came together in the back to form one long braid that hung down on her shoulders. He recognized the style as his mother’s, and sadness crept over him as he thought of her showing Rey the traditional Alderaanian braiding style.

Rey looked back at him then, “When was the last time you meditated?” She asked him. Ben was taken aback, it wasn’t a question he was expecting.

“Meditation is not a part of the dark side teachings.” Ben said, shrugging. Rey had a small, slightly sad smile on her face when she said, “Why don’t we try meditation? If you’re joining the correct side of the force again, it’ll be good practice for you.” She sounded like she was teasing, but Rey did stand up and motion for him to follow her.

Rey led Ben through the main hull of the ship and towards the back where the living quarters were. Ben knew it well, he had spent many nights sleeping on the ship while his father flew them to some random corner of the galaxy. Rey gently placed her hand on the entry button and the door to the bedroom slid open. It was then that Ben realized that Rey had probably been living on this ship for the past year.

The bed stood in the corner of the small room, just as Ben remembered it. Although a top bunk had been added so that there was room for two to sleep. Ben wondered who occupied the second bed, and guessed that it rotated between her friends. The sheets on the bottom bed were not made, the blankets tossed haphazardly towards the foot of the bed. There were some clothes hanging out of the dresser, and Ben noticed that there was a holo image on the dresser of Rey and her friends standing together and laughing at the camera.

The room was small enough that it only took Rey two steps to get to the dresser and place her hand on the holo image, shutting it down. She glanced at the bed and then looked back at Ben in a way that made his stomach drop, but then Rey settled herself down on the ground. Ben followed her lead, crossing his legs as he sat down. He was unsure about opening himself up to the force in this way, it had been so long since he had last meditated.

But Rey was there, and she was looking at him in a way that made him feel as though she could see right through him.

“I’ll help you.” She whispered, and he remembered how they had stood together in the elevator before he brought her to Snoke. Their faces had been inches apart.

Rey took both of his hands in her own and closed her eyes, Ben followed suit. He thought back to when he would meditate at the academy, with his peers. But he had never been this relaxed back then with Snoke (or the Emperor, there was apparently no difference) in his mind. Ben suspected that Rey was manipulating the force a bit, because it welcomed him with no restraints.

It was like he had been holding his muscles locked for over a decade and was suddenly relaxed. The force welcomed him with open arms, and he went straight for the light. It felt _good_ in a way that he didn’t remember.

_Was this how it always felt, the light?_ Ben wondered. It couldn’t have felt like this when he was a child, why would he have gone to the dark if he felt all this? The force was running though everything, and he was no longer just feeling the death and darkness. He was feeling the life.

Rey let go of Ben’s hands, “I’ll be back.” He heard her say, Ben didn’t feel the need to question her. He blissfully sat in meditation for an unknown amount of time, letting all aspects of the force run through him.

Ben was only brought back to the present when a voice that was not Rey began to speak to him.

“What-oh, sorry.” The voice said. Ben unwillingly pulled himself out of his meditative state to turn to the speaker. It was the woman with dark hair, Rose, she had been called.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your meditation.” She said, sounding genuine.

“Where’s Rey?” He asked, and Rose frowned.

“That’s what I was coming to ask you.” She said. Ben stood up, Rose had already taken off down the hallway.

“She’s not on the ship.” Rose was telling the rest of the group.

“What, you mean she’s gone?” Finn said, his voice rising with worry. He and Poe turned to look at Ben as he appeared behind Rose.

“Where is she?” Finn said accusingly. Ben was at a loss for words.

“She told me she’d be back.” Ben said, the words sounding pathetically useless as he said them. Finn made to run out of the ship, but Poe grabbed the back of his jacket.

“You can’t go out there yelling after her, she’s wanted by the First Order and they’re all over the place.” Poe said, trying to sound assuring, but there was a definite edge of worry to his tone.

“You two have that... thing.” Finn said, turning to Ben. “You know, where you talk to each other. Find out where she is.” He demanded.

Ben didn’t know exactly how to use their force connection, he was only successfully in calling her intentionally a couple of times. But he tried anyway, it was like trying to run through a heavy fog. He called out _Rey_ in his mind, hoping that she would answer. But then he felt himself run up against a wall, and he knew immediately what Rey was doing.

“She’s blocking me out, Rey doesn’t want us to know where she is.”


	13. Exegol

It hadn’t been hard to get a ship, Rey simply compelled its owners to walk away and that was that. Rey felt guilty, but there was really no other option available. She hoped that they would be able to find a new one themselves.

Rey looked back uneasily at the Holocron that was sitting behind her, guiding her path to Exegol. She had been so reluctant to touch it as she had taken it from that Falcon that she used her foot to slide it into her bag. Rey tried to keep her thoughts away from the Falcon and all her friends onboard. It felt wrong to simply classify them as her friends, they were her family. That resolve carried Rey forward to the Emperor, as terrified as she felt about it, there was no getting around the fact that she had to save her family.

But Ben, what was he to her? Rey had felt him pressing against their bond earlier in her flight, but she had been successful in blocking him out. She couldn’t ignore the feelings she had for him, every time they had made eye contact her heart fluttered uncontrollably and her stomach dropped.

Rey had seen romantic pairs before, there were plenty of them at the Resistance base. They were often short winded, and afterword the couple would be unable to speak to each other. There was also Finn and Poe, whose feelings for one another had endured the entire time Rey had known them, but they had yet to act on them. Perhaps that was the best way to go about it, if nothing was ever said then no one could get hurt.

She didn’t suppose she could ignore Ben though, there was something about him inexplicably drew Rey towards him. Maybe it was the force, if they were a true dyad then they were equals. Meant to be together.

The beeping of the navigation system brought Rey out of her reverie, and she pulled herself and the ship out of light speed. The ship started bumping up and down, and Rey looked out the windows in horror as she saw a massive fleet of Star Destroyers. The Emperor hadn’t been lying, he really did have reinforcements. They weren’t firing on her though, she suspected that they had been told to let her come through unscathed.

She let her ship float down towards the planet while remaining on high alert, she still had no idea what the Emperor wanted from her. The unmoving ships seemed to be arranged in a way that would lead her where she needed to go, they formed a pathway of sorts that Rey followed all the way until she landed. It was directly in front of a massive rock that appeared to be floating above the ground. Taking a steadying breath, Rey exited her stolen ship.

Rey walked slowly towards the rock, and upon further inspection she saw that it was floating off the ground. She tentatively walked underneath it, as though afraid it may fall and crush her at any moment. Rey walked to the very center of the rock, and jumped with fright as the ground beneath her feet started to move. She was going down smoothly, on a lift of some kind. Out of the shadows she saw enormous humanoid statues, daring her to be afraid. Rey straightened out her shoulders and refused to be intimidated. After what felt like hundreds of feet, the lift stopped.

It really was the place from her visions, although there was more lightning than she was expecting. It flashed every minute or so, never giving off any sounds of thunder. Less like lightning and more like there was an electrical problem in the large room needing to be repaired. Rey was still standing in the same spot when she heard the voice.

“Rey, you have finally come!” It called joyfully, and Rey felt her feet start to move forward unwillingly. The voice continued as she moved deeper into the room. “You have no idea how happy I am to have you here with me. I am delighted to get started.” The voice started laughing.

Rey kept her mouth shut, even when she turned a corner and could no longer see her exit route. The room was only lit by the lightning, but she wasn’t surprised when she saw the looming figure some feet ahead of her. It was the same as in her visions.

“Thank you for your help, my dear.” The Emperor crooned at her.

“What exactly am I helping you with?” Rey called with as much force as she could muster.

“It’s a partnership, my dear. We are going to help each other.” The Emperor said. He was attached to some kind of machine that appeared to be helping him move. As he spoke, the machine inched him closer to Rey, who held her ground.

“I’m not here to help you.” Rey growled, her hand went to her lightsaber at her belt. But she didn’t light it yet.

“A shame, especially since your friends are on the line.” He said in a mocking tone, and Rey’s sense of fear kicked up a notch.

“You will support me in coming back to power, together we will bring the Sith back to their rightful place as the most powerful source in the galaxy.” Rey’s mouth opened once as she listened to the Emperor’s words, but she shut it again before she could ask any questions.

“You will do so by striking me down. Once you have completed your mission, my power will flow through you and we will become one.” The Emperor said, grinning. This time, Rey found a retort.

“Why me?” She called, genuinely curious. The Emperor’s smile grew wider.

“You are the last Jedi. When you are gone, so will go the last of your kind.” He said.

“That’s not true.” Rey said, shaking her head no. “You don’t need the Jedi to have the light side of the force, it’s always been there and it always will.”

“Don’t be so naïve child, and you are starting to waste my patience. It is time. Strike me down.” The Emperor lowered himself closer to the ground and opened his arms open wide. All Rey had to do was ignite her lightsaber and with a quick swipe he would be gone. Rey began to sense the presence of other Sith spirits circling her. Rey refused to take the bait.

“No, I will not.” She said defensively, making a show of holding her arms away from her saber. The Emperor grimaced, and made a gesture with his arms. Rey was yanked back with a force she wasn’t anticipating. Her head slammed into the ground and she saw spots of light spark in front of her eyes, there was a whining in her ears. But she was up on her feet again quickly, glaring at the Emperor and ignoring her throbbing head.

“Use your hate!” The Emperor called as he used the force to throw her again, this time she landed on her arm. Rey yelled out in pain, something had definitely broken. It was her right arm though, not her most used arm. Rey used her left hand to stand up again, huffing with the effort and turned to face the Emperor again.

“Your strength will be useful to us.” He said, and this time he kept his hands aloft as he manipulated the force in a way that made Rey feel pain in every part of her body. She couldn’t help herself and she screamed, it was agony. Like a hundred knives being driven into her body and twisted at the same time. She dropped down to the ground, not even caring that she landed on her bad arm. Rey couldn’t focus enough to keep her friends out of her mind, and she thought of Ben as the pain continued relentlessly.

******

Poe and Zorri were arguing as a band of unknown mechanics who worked with Zorri helped Chewie, Finn, and Rose make the needed repairs on the Falcon. Ben was hanging back in the bedroom, keeping out of sight. Rey’s friends were one thing, but flaunting the Supreme Leader of the First Order out and about was entirely out of the question. Ben hated being unable to do something, even if it was helping the people who irritated him.

He had decided to try meditation again, but it was proving to be much more difficult without Rey there with him. His worrying about her didn’t help either. He was doubtful that anyone had taken Rey somewhere against her will, more likely she was trying to be selfless in dealing with an issue herself. Saving her friends. Her kindness stung him and made his heart ache.

But then there she was, the block on their bond was gone. And she was in agony. Ben jumped up, horrified. His view on her wasn’t as clear as it had been in the past, perhaps because she was entirely distracted. Ben peered into her surroundings, he recognized the dark, fathoms-deep room.

“Rey!” Ben tried to call to her, but she couldn’t hear him. He had sat by and watched her scream in pain once before, he wouldn’t do it again.

“Rey I’m coming, do you hear me? I’m coming!” Ben yelled in her direction, Rey might have heard him or she might have not, but she was in no state to respond either way. Ben was brought back to his surroundings by a sound at the door. Finn was there, and a quick glance was enough for Ben to see that he knew something was wrong as well.

“I know where she is, we need to go.” Ben told him. Finn nodded, his previous mistrust of Ben gone in the face of his determination to help his best friend.

“They’re finishing up the repairs right now.” Finn told him, dashing back out of the room to tell Poe and Rose that they were going to have to make a quick exit.

Ben silently asked the force to help Rey hold on long enough for them to arrive.


	14. Family

As soon as Finn had left the room, Ben realized that there wouldn’t be enough time for them to get to Rey before Palpatine had killed her or worse. They were going to have to split up, and Ben already had a plan forming in his mind.

Ben stealthily left the bedroom, inching to look around the corner to see who was in the ship. There were no unfamiliar people in the hold, but just to be sure, Ben kept to the hallway instead of entering the main hull of the ship. Rose was standing in front of the main engine panel, and Ben called in a loud whisper, “Rose!” and it caught her attention. He motioned for her to come talk to him, and she glanced to either side of herself first. As though she was checking if there was someone else he was talking to.

She hurried over to him, “What?” She said, curiosity and confusion all over her face.

Ben had to make this quick, “I know you don’t have any reason to trust me-” He started, but Rose cut him off.

“If Rey trusts you, I trust you.” She said simply. Her words brought unfamiliar emotion to him, and he wasn’t sure if it was the fact that someone trusted him, or if it was pain at the thought of Rey-who was clearly so beloved by her friends-was being tortured at this very moment. She didn’t deserve any of the pain and sorrow she had felt for her entire life.

“Rey is in trouble, and she’s not going to make it if I don’t go now.” Ben said quickly, putting aside his feelings temporarily. Rose’s eyes grew wide, but he suspected that Finn had already alerted her to Rey needing their help because she didn’t follow up with any questions.

“Go now, it’ll be easy for you to make someone give you a ship.” Rose commanded. “I’ll distract Finn and Poe, or they’ll never let you leave without them.”

“Palpatine will have his army gathered on Exegol, if you can round up the Resistance and lead them there you’ll have a chance to defeat the First Order.” Ben said quickly.

“How are we supposed to get there? Finn checked already and Rey took the Holocron with her.” Rose told him.

“There are two Holocrons with map to Exegol, I have the other one. I’m going to leave it with you, and you will send the coordinates to the Resistance. Tell them to bring everyone and prepare for a battle. I know the way already, I’ve been to that planet before.” Ben told her. Rose looked nervous, but confident in her resolve. She nodded and simply said, “Go.”

******

Rey didn’t know for how long the Emperor had held her on the ground in that state of agony, but she brought herself back to awareness with the throbbing of her right arm, which was holding some of her weight. She backed off it and clutched it to her chest, looking up at the Emperor.

“Have you come to your senses child?” He asked innocently. Rey coughed a couple times, her throat seemed to be raw from all the yelling. But her voice didn’t waver when she responded, “Apparently not.” And she stood up, fighting past the shaking of her legs. The Emperor didn’t seem to be put out.

He gave an exaggerated frown and said, “Pity. Perhaps a demonstration will be helpful.” Fear rose up in Rey’s chest again, the Emperor pointed to the ceiling and far above their heads an opening appeared, growing wider ever second. Rey could see the numerous Star Destroyers above them. Right in the center of the ship formation stood a Destroyer that was painted the same as its counterparts, but Rey could tell that it had a wider and deeper hull.

They stared up for a moment, the light from the dark grey sky and the ships momentarily rendering the lightning in the room dimmer. But then the larger ship let out a blast, and Rey watched as a streak of red emerged from the ship and went forward into hyperspace. Within a few seconds, Rey felt the lives of at least a million people in the force cry out all at once and then vanish completely. The shock of it was devastating to Rey, and she held one hand to her heart as a few tears escaped her eyes. That single ship had the power of the fabled Death Star, to destroy entire worlds in one blast.

Rey felt her anger rise up then, she tried to put it away but her good arm went involuntarily to her lightsaber. She unclipped it from her belt, but still did not light it. If looks could kill though, the Emperor would already be dead.

“Power comes from anger, young Rey. Use it, and you will see powers more extraordinary than you can imagine.” The Emperor called, still waiting for Rey to strike. And she was indeed feeling angry, a million souls were gone because of her. Rey had no back up plan, if she wouldn’t kill the Emperor, what would she do? She was stuck in a corner and had no way of getting out.

“My power comes from the force!” She yelled, throwing her lightsaber down on the ground. The Emperor clutched his hand into a fist, and Rey was yanked up at least twenty feet into the air and the pulled down hard onto the ground.

It was a moment before Rey remembered how to breathe again. When she did, Rey coughed into the dirt and realized she was face down on the ground. She slowly turned herself over onto her back and felt pain along her ribcage. Rey watched the room turn and sway around her, the Emperor was saying something but his words were lost in the jumble that was her senses. Rey didn’t think she would ever get back up again, and what was the point anyway? This was a fight she couldn’t win, there was no endgame here other than killing the Emperor. If she did that, then he would win. If she didn’t kill him though, he would kill everything she had ever come to know and love.

Tears came swiftly to her eyes, although no sobs escaped her lips. Rey simply let the tears roll down her cheeks as she stared up at the waiting Star Destroyers.

Rey was alone, utterly alone.

“Be with me.” Rey cried softly, desperate for anyone. “Be with me.” She said again, crying harder now.

It was no wonder the ghosts of the Jedi before her had never shown themselves, she wasn’t a Jedi. She never studied at an academy. She didn’t belong to anyone’s family. She was no one.

_Not to me._

The voice surprised her. “Ben?” Rey called tentatively.

_I’m here, Rey._

This wasn’t like their usual force-enhanced conversations. Rey couldn’t see Ben, she could only hear him.

_I’m on my way, please hold on until I make it._

“You’re coming back for me?” Rey’s face crumpled a bit as she said the words.

_You’re the one who left in the first place, sweetheart. But yes, I could never leave you. Not after all you’ve done to help me._

“Ben, I don’t think I can. I think I’m going to die.” Rey continued, her voice breaking a bit at the end. Him calling her sweetheart hadn’t even registered. It just felt so natural.

_You’re not going to die! You’re stronger than that, Rey._

Rey caught the hint of desperation in his voice, he didn’t want her to die. Rey managed to stop the flow of her tears, she started taking deep breaths to steady herself.

“I’m just…me. There’s nothing special about me.” Rey struggled to find the right words for how she was feeling.

_You are just you Rey, but that’s exactly who you need to be. The force believes in you, and so do I, and so do your friends._

And then Rey heard Leia in her other ear. _You have everything you need,_ she whispered softly. And then Finn’s voice was there, _Rey you can do this!_ He called.

Images flashed across Rey’s vision: Han was asking her to join his crew, Finn was coming back for her on Starkiller, Luke was sacrificing himself for the Resistance, she, Finn, Poe, and Rose were laughing together on the Falcon over a drink, Rose was giving her a hug after a difficult day of training, and every warm and comforting hug that she’d received since finding her new family.

And Ben, he was taking her hand.

_Get up, Rey!_ Ben yelled.

With a gasp of pain, Rey rolled to her side and slammed her left arm into the ground. Inhaling sharply, she slid her knees up underneath herself. Using the momentum from her good arm, Rey pushed her torso up and dragged her legs into standing. Breathing heavily, Rey called her dropped lightsaber to her hand. The moment she made contact with her saber, she heard the banging sounds of multiple ships entering the atmosphere.

Looking up, Rey saw the Resistance fleet. All the battle and civilian ships bringing the war to the Emperor, every soul present due to the power of Luke’s sacrifice the year before. Using the strength from her family and herself, Rey turned her head down to glare at the Emperor.

She was not going to go down so easily.


	15. Battle

“Are we all clear on the plan?” Poe spoke into his helmet that would project his voice to his flight squadron and the leadership on the larger ships.

“It’s simple enough, aim for the big ship.” The calm voice of Snap spoke in Poe’s ear, who couldn’t help but feel more at ease as he heard the voices of his squad. He felt back in his element here in his X-Wing, the Falcon was fun to fly for sure, but this was his happy place. It would get even happier once they’d taken down their enemies. Poe tried to keep himself grounded, he was in charge for now. He gulped back the emotion that jumped up when he thought of Leia, he couldn’t think about it right now. Later he would have to painfully process it, but the middle of a battle wasn’t a good time to lean into how depressed he was going to feel.

Poe, Finn, Rose, and Chewie had heard of Leia’s death when they got in contact with the Resistance to give them the coordinates for Exegol. They had called for Leia, and were met with silence on the other end of the line. It was Kadel Connix who finally told them, Chewie was so overcome that he had to leave the ship. Poe was about to follow him into hysterics when Finn laid a hand on his shoulder, causing Poe to pause. Finn leaned forward and rested his forehead against Poe’s, and they stood they for a long moment while Rose tearfully informed Kadel of the plan and gave her the coordinates.

When she was done, Finn pulled away from Poe and looked him in the eyes. Poe nodded, and took his place in the pilot’s seat. Rose joined him as co-pilot while Finn went to bring Chewie onboard and console him as well.

Finn and Rose were on the Falcon with Chewie, Rose continuing to fly as co-pilot until any repairs were needed, at which point Chewie would fly on his own. Finn was in his gunner position. Using the speaker system to talk with the cockpit, Finn called, “I see the ship!”

Rose could see it as well. The largest of the First Order, or Empire, or whatever they were now. Only a ship of that size could be giving the wireless commands to the rest of their fleet, if the Resistance took down their communications ship the rest would be without any kind of navigational system. They were also hoping that Rey and Ben would be able to take down the Emperor, leaving them without a way to communicate and with no one to receive orders from. At least Finn, Poe, and Rose hoped Rey _and_ Ben would take care of the Emperor, they had elected to keep Ben's name off the table to the rest of the Resistance until they were finished with this battle.

“Let’s do this!” Rose yelled, and she could hear the cheers from the other ships through the communication system. The Resistance had grown exponentially after word got out about Luke’s sacrifice on Crait, and Rose had hope in her heart that they would be enough to bring the justice they were hoping for back to the galaxy.

The Resistance surged forward.

******

Far below the star fight above, Rey faced down the Emperor. He was in a less jubilant mood now that he had taken notice of the battle that was raging against his army.

“Didn’t expect this, did you?” Rey taunted.

“It was a possibility, I suppose this will make them all the easier to destroy once my powers are restored.” The Emperor grumbled. He made to reach an arm up into the air towards the ships above, but Rey was faster. Pushing her hurt arm forward, she manipulated the force to slam the Emperor’s arm to his side. He did not take to her interference kindly, and aimed his own attack using the force her way, but Rey was expecting it this time.

Holding up her arm, she created a barrier in front of herself. It was exceedingly difficult to hold, even in his decaying state the Emperor was deadly powerful, but Rey let the force flow through herself and managed to beat back the Emperor’s advances.

He gave a roar of anger, and used his other hand to shoot a formidable arc of lightning into the sky. It branched off at the top and hit the Resistance ships, Rey saw them lose power and slowly start to fall towards the ground.

“No!” Rey yelled, her arms trembling as she tried to keep up her barrier. Her friends were going to die, and it would all be her fault. Rey looked around for some kind of support, and felt the odd but reassuring notion that the world was slowing down. She watched as though in a trance as the lighting arc slowed down, she could see each fiber of light twisting and turning as it shot vertically upwards.

Turning her head, she saw Ben. In her eyes, he was standing in the room with her. But she knew that he was somewhere else, and Rey felt the help he needed. He was surrounded by enemies, without a weapon. Still stuck in slow motion, they looked each other in the eyes and each felt the warmth of each other’s support. Both giving the smallest of smiles, Rey and Ben knew the plan without exchanging any words. Rey could feel that he was nearby, and basked in the warmth of his presence. It lit her up in the darkness of the pit she was in, she didn’t want to let go of the moment.

Ben nodded, as though to say that it was time. Still in another world with Ben, Rey yelled out, “STOP”.

She was looking in the direction of the Emperor, but in reality she was looking right through him. Ben was there, and at the moment that was all Rey needed. The Emperor stopped the lightning arc, and Rey dropped her barrier. There were no words spoken, but Rey put on a face of anger. She took two painfully slow steps towards the Emperor, lit her lightsaber and raised it above her head.

The Emperor smiled and held his arms wide again, waiting for her to strike. He was so separated from the life in the force that he didn’t notice Rey wasn’t brewing over with anger for him, all she had space for in her heart was love for a man so close but so far away who needed her help. She looked into Ben’s eyes, and Rey knew that he felt the same way. Rey lifted the lightsaber higher and behind her head, and felt a gentle hand take the saber.

The world sped up again and Rey could no longer see Ben, but she could feel him nearby. Her gaze turned to the Emperor, and as she brought her arm back down he saw that the saber was no longer in her hand. His shock turned to anger in an instant as he realized the trick she had played.

The Emperor blasted Rey away from him, her knees hit the ground first and to avoid landing on her hurt arm again Rey didn’t put her hands down. She smacked her forehead on the floor and felt a gush of blood somewhere above her right eye.

Rey didn’t see the Emperor send the lightning arc her way, but she knew what it was once she felt it. All her nerves were firing off at once, she couldn’t even yell as her teeth ground together. But then it stopped.

Rey rolled softly to her side, and waited for her eyes to adjust. At first he simply looked like a dark figure, with his black clothes and black hair swinging his family lightsaber as he burst into the room at a sprint.

The Emperor sent an arc of lightning in Ben’s direction but he dodged it, heading for Rey. He could sense that she was alright, just hurting, but he wanted to be by her side all the same. The Emperor had other plans though. He used both hands to send jets of lightning towards Ben, following his run through the large room.

Ben had no intention of stepping back into the dark side of the force, but there was no reason for him not to use his experiences to their full potential. Summoning the anger that would likely forever be inside of him, Ben sent his own jet of lightning at the Emperor. The lightning caught him, and for a moment the Emperor shuddered with the blast from it. But he shoved it away quickly. Ben dodged another lightning attack from the Emperor and bolted diagonally towards Palpatine and his enormous machine that held him upright. Bringing his lightsaber down, Ben aimed a strike at the Emperor. His machine moved at a surprising speed for looking so outdated, and sped the Emperor out of Ben's reach.

"Not you!" Palpatine spat at Ben, the words confused him but he wasn't in a space to question. The Emperor's next blast did catch Ben, who felt it through his shoulder. Despite the fire in his arm, Ben managed to manipulate the force to move the lightning towards the ground where it split the earth underneath them. It made a long crack in the floor, which travelled down farther than Ben could see and past Rey who was still on the ground. _Why aren't you up yet?_ Ben's worried thoughts echoed towards Rey, who didn't reply.

The Emperor took notice Ben's momentary distraction and aimed another attack at him, this time to freeze him in place. Palpatine moved towards Ben to look him in the face. He seemed disappointed.

“You have power, boy. But you are too weak to truly use it.” The Emperor sent another blast of lightning towards Ben. The blast caught him squarely in the chest and sent him flying backwards. He was blown so far back, Rey couldn't even see where he landed if he landed at all. For all she knew, this room went on indefinitely and Ben had been sent into the unknown.

“Ben.” Rey gasped from her own position on the ground. She thought she might be dying, every breath was painful and Rey thought one of her broken ribs may have hit a lung. Her eyes travelled up towards the Emperor as he sent his lightning into the sky again, bringing down the Resistance once and for all.

Rey had an idea, and if it worked her family would be safe. There was little time to debate her options, but Rey admitted to herself that she was scared. In the back of her mind, Rey felt Leia’s presence and heard the whisper, _I’m with you._

Grimacing with the pain, Rey took a deep breath and dragged herself to her feet again. The Emperor watched her move with a look of disgust on his face. His voice was full of loathing as he said, “If you are going to refuse me, then I have no further use for you.”

“Do it then.” Rey spat back as forcefully as she could.

He didn’t even bother to pull both hands down, with one hand pointed up to keep the arc of lightning pulling down the Resistance ships, the Emperor used his other hand to shoot lightning towards Rey. This time, she caught it.

The Emperor’s faced morphed into one of shock as he saw what Rey was doing. Both hands where held in front of her, creating a barrier like before but this time the lightning seemed to be pooling itself into her hands. It took all of Rey’s concentration to keep herself upright, the energy use of what she was attempting was massive and she was only halfway to where she was headed.

Rey waited for the Emperor to take the bait, holding her position. Finally he became overcome with rage and yelled, "You can not defeat me, I am all the Sith!"

He pulled his other arm away from the Resistance ships. He used his full energy to blast Rey with the power to bring down hundreds of ships. At which point Rey directed the force to blast _away_ from herself rather than holding it in front of her.

The Emperor’s power ricocheted away from Rey and back into him, and with a yell he tried to stop but it was too late.

"And I," Rey said, watching his eyes change from anger to fear, "Am no one."

With an almighty BANG, the force of the lightning began to rip the Emperor to pieces, and Rey watched as he slowly decayed completely in front of her. His exit from existence sent a blast throughout the room, the ghosts of the Sith who had been waiting on the outskirts screamed and died all at once.

The room was quiet, or maybe Rey’s ears had stopped working. Either way, she looked around the room in a state of calm she hadn’t felt in she wasn’t sure how long.

Rey felt herself slipping, and fell to the floor in what seemed like slow motion. Rey didn’t even feel herself hit the ground.

For a quick moment, Rey wondered whether she’d come back as a ghost. If only to hold Ben’s hand one more time. The last thing Rey remembered was the memory of herself releasing Ben’s hands back on the Falcon as she snuck away from him while he practiced a meditation.

How stupid of her to let go.

And Rey remembered nothing else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not the end of the story! Sorry for the pain!


	16. Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was writing this chapter and realized that it was going to be realllllly long, so I split it up into 2 parts. Next chapter is on it's way!

They were really in it now. Resistance ships had gone down on either side of Poe, he felt every tragedy as it happened and watched totally helpless as his friends were shot down around him. He could only hold out hope that some of them would survive a crash to the surface, and that they could win this thing and make every single sacrifice worth it.

“Why do we keep losing power?” Rose yelled out to the communications system at large, referring to the two times now that all Resistance ships had been frozen in midair and began deathly drops towards the ground before gaining power once again.

“Something big is going on below us.” Poe responded, his voice grave.

“Whatever it is, the Falcon can’t take another hit like that.” Rose said, and Poe heard Chewie growl his seconding of her words in the background.

“Well then let’s get this over with, where are we on the main objective?” Poe asked the surrounding teams.

“We just finished our tenth run through, there’s damage to the ship but not enough to take down the whole thing.” Poe heard the red squadron leader report. Damn, they’d done ten already? Poe’s squadron had just completed seven, and he assumed the rest of the teams had done similar numbers, yet they still hadn’t taken down their target.

“I’m patching Finn through to you Poe.” Rose’s voice spoke through the Poe’s ship, and less than a minute later Finn’s voice came through too.

“We must have made enough damage to reach the cabling on the ship, I think if we start aiming at the right place instead of hitting the ship in general we can take it down sooner than later.” Finn told him.

“It’s a good plan, but how are we going to let everyone know where the cabling is? And if we’re all sitting in one spot aiming at the same thing, the rest of these ships are going to pick us off easily.” Poe knew that Finn’s plan would work, but the outside elements were too much of a risk.

“I know where it is, you can have the rest of the squadron’s cover the Falcon while we hit the ship.” Finn explained.

“Are you sure about this? What exactly is hitting cables going to do?” Poe was already worried about the Resistance as a whole, but panic at a different level set in when he thought of Finn taking on the First Order’s largest ship on his own.

“Don’t worry Poe, I’m not going to let him pull a Crait.” Rose reassured him, referring to Finn’s attempt at sacrificing himself for the remaining members of the Resistance at their last major confrontation with the First Order. She meant it jokingly, but the thought still made his stomach bottom out more than a quick drop in his X-Wing.

Nevertheless, Poe gave the orders for all squadrons to cover the falcon as it made it’s way closer to their target Star Destroyer.

“Are you really sure you know what you’re doing Finn?” Rose called down to him, then jumped slightly when she realized that Finn was standing right behind her in the cockpit.

“What are you doing up here?” She questioned.

“I can’t see as well from the lower gunner, I’ll use the controls from up here. Can you get in the top gunner position?” Finn asked.

“But you don’t have any of the navigational tech up here!” Rose said, incredulous.

“I know, but something is telling me I need to be up here right now. You trust me?” Rose pulled a face at his words, “Of course I trust you Finn.” As she stood up, Rose gave Finn a quick peck on the cheek before hurrying up to her usual fighting position.

Chewie growled at Finn after Rose had left.

“Don’t give me that, you trust me too.” Finn grumbled. “Take us down there Chewie.” Finn continued, pointing at a lower-left section of the target Star Destroyer. As Chewie took them closer, Finn attempted to calm his mind like Rey did in stressful moments. He really wished that she were with him right now, if only so that he could finally tell her that the force had been calling to him so strongly. And also to tell her how much he loved her, Finn didn’t know what it was like to have a sibling but he was sure his feelings for Rey were as close as he would ever get to knowing.

Breathing slowly, Finn closed his eyes as he attempted to focus more closely on his force connection. Chewie responded to his action by howling at him.

“I know I said I needed to see Chewie, I am right now.” Finn mumbled, the words didn’t quite make sense to him but he hoped Chewie would understand the message. The force was guiding him to a narrowing point, he didn’t have a specific target in mind but there seemed to be a gentle pull in a certain location ahead of him.

“Rose?” Finn called into the Falcon’s speaker system.

“I’m here.” She said.

“I’m going to start firing, and when you see where I’m aiming you aim there too. Keep your hand on the trigger and don’t stop.” Finn said.

Finn slowly opened his eyes, he was resolved in his decision. And he aimed.

The shots from Finn’s blaster were soon joined by Rose’s, and together they fired with all they could onto the Destroyer while Chewie held them steady. The Falcon was starting to take more fire from nearby First Order fighters, and Chewie yelled about their shields starting to go down. Rose heard his comment and left her gunner spot quickly to start working on ship repairs, she had meant what she said to Poe about keeping Finn from martyring himself.

Finn continued without pause as he fired on the Destroyer, the only thought in his mind being the massive blow against the First Order this would be.

Two things happened simultaneously. A shudder went through the massive Start Destroyer, visible in the form of the lights going out in a wave across the ship, there was a moment’s pause before the head of the ship started to turn down and slowly sink. They had lost power. Finn heard the cheers go up from the various Resistance ships over their main communications.

But he felt a pull through the force too. Finn’s hands slid off the gunner controls as he fell back in his seat, it was a mark of how well Chewie knew Finn that he didn’t take Finn’s reaction as one of relief as he looked at Finn with concern in his eyes. From behind them, Rose ran into the cockpit filled to the brim with happiness, but she stopped once she felt the atmosphere of the room.

“What? What happened?” She said, crouching down in between the two pilot seats. Finn couldn’t even turn to look at her as his eyes began to fill with tears, “Rey.” He whispered.


	17. New Family

Ben’s vision slowly came back into view, and the high-pitched ringing in his ears started to go down as well. His thoughts remained a bit muddled though, as he tested how the back of his head felt by running his fingers gently over the area where he had hit it against the stone wall. He winced, no doubt he had suffered some mild if not major blunt force trauma to the head.

The memory of where he was came back to him sharply, “Rey.” He managed to say, wincing as the volume of his voice made his head pound. Ben squinted ahead of him, there was no light beside the open sky. The sky on this planet was perpetually grey, but Ben could tell by the light that day was turning into night. He couldn’t see anyone in the room with him, but there was a chance he was too far away to see them anyway.

Ben closed his eyes and reached out through the force to try and feel where Rey had gone, but he found nothing. Opening his eyes, Ben frowned. Was she blocking him again? Palpatine was also conspicuously absent. Either Palpatine and Rey had left the room, or Rey had defeated him and left Ben behind. His heart sank at the thought, she had been so happy to see him earlier.

He needed to get closer to the center of the room, right underneath the opening in the ceiling that the sky was visible through. That’s where Rey had been the last time Ben saw her.

Getting to his feet was a struggle, any upwards movement sent Ben’s head spinning. Once he managed to get himself up, forward movement sent Ben’s head spinning. After three failed attempts to get anywhere, Ben gripped the wall behind him and dragged himself to his feet. He grit his teeth, he would move _forward_ this time, he commanded to himself.

Ben shuffled forward, keeping both feet on the ground at the same time seemed to help his balance. As he moved slowly on, Ben squinted into the darkness to try and find any evidence of what had happened. The room appeared to have taken a massive hit from a weapon of some kind, had a ship from above fired on them?

That would have rendered the room a crater, whatever had happened seemed to have come from inside the room itself. While he was worrying about the kind of power it would have taken to reduced the stone around him to crumbles, Ben almost missed the figure on the ground some yards ahead of him.

He took in the figure dressed in white, his mind was slow to the uptake but he realized he was looking at Rey.

“Rey?” He called, was she hurt? She didn’t respond, Ben tried to move faster toward her but the movement was too much and he lost his balance again. He didn’t bother to try and get up this time, he crawled towards her on his hands and knees. The closer he got, the more panic rose up from his stomach.

Ben was finally close enough to touch her outstretched arm, and he grabbed clumsily for her wrist. He couldn’t find her pulse, but perhaps it was because his hands were shaking too much. Ben sat down next to Rey and pulled her into his arms as gently as he could.

“Rey, wake up. Please wake up.” Ben called to her softly, her eyes were almost all the way closed and she was entirely limp in his arms. Ben pulled her into his chest, and he knew. There was no life coming from her, from what he could tell from the force it no longer flowed through Rey. It simply bent around her as though she was a rock in a stream.

Ben pulled himself out of his one-sided embrace and looked from side to side in the cavernous room. He didn’t expect to see anyone, but he was desperate to find somewhere there to tell him what to do. To comfort him.

But Ben was alone.

He inhaled and it caught in his throat, tears started to well up in his eyes. A chocked sob escaped from Ben as he pulled Rey close again and buried his face in the side of her neck. Why her? She didn’t deserve this, Rey was nothing but light despite the darkness she sometimes felt in herself. All her life she had either been alone, or helping someone other than herself. Ben’s life had been filled with terror he had inflicted on others. Sure he had been a scared boy in the beginning, but he had committed many atrocities far beyond what even Rey could imagine.

This was his fault, Ben came to realize as he started rocking himself and Rey back and forth, trying to soothe himself and stop the flow of tears. Everyone he had loved or cared about was dead. With a jolt Ben realized that Rey had joined his mother and father as a person for whom he loved wholeheartedly.

Ben suddenly had a thought. Rey had healed him back on his ship, he was going to die but she had saved him. Maybe he still had a chance to bring her back if he healed Rey in the same way. To bring Rey back would mean giving her all the life force that Ben had, but if only one of them could live…Ben knew the answer he and the rest of the galaxy would choose.

He brought Rey down gently to rest on his outstretched leg, Ben placed his hand on her stomach. He let out a gentle exhale and tried to bring the force around himself as Rey had shown him in their brief meditation. Ben wondered if he would be dead before Rey woke up, if she would know what he had done.

As he was contemplating this, he felt a pull from the force. Ben furrowed his brows and opened his eyes. A blue shape was emerging just a few feet in front of him, as it came into shape Ben realized he was looking at the face of his uncle.

“Luke?” Ben said in a barely audible whisper, it was still the face from his nightmares. The face of someone he had once trusted, who held a lightsaber aloft ready to strike him down in his sleep. If he wasn’t holding Rey, Ben would have edged himself backwards and away from his uncle. Instead, he gripped Rey tighter to himself.

Luke was looking at him with a curious expression on his face, it was almost pleased. “Hey kid, looks like something exciting went down.”

Ben felt himself growing angry, “She’s dead! How can you say that!” He yelled, Ben didn’t want to cry in front of Uncle Luke, but he felt the tears burning his eyes anyway. Luke’s face fell slightly, but he didn’t look as hopeless as Ben felt.

“And you were in the middle of bringing her back.” Luke continued in a softer voice.

“How do you know that this will even work?” Ben mumbled, keeping his head down to try and hide the tears streaming down his cheeks.

“I know it’s going to work because I can tell what you’re planning on giving up to get her back.” There was the pleased tone in Luke’s voice again. Of course, Ben should have known that Luke would be happy about Ben’s death. He didn’t say anything back to Luke, he noticed his tears were falling down onto Rey’s face. Ben gently wiped them away.

Luke watched his nephews tender movements and said, “Ben, I am so sorry. I made a mistake.”

He was referring to the night at the academy that haunted Ben’s dreams and occasional waking hours. Ben considered getting angry at Luke again, but he was too focused on looking down at Rey.

Rey who had forgiven him, and convinced her friends to do the same. But Ben wasn’t as good as Rey, if they truly had a force dyad then he was the dark while she was the light.

“Ben” A new voice was calling to him, and Ben looked up to see his mother slowly coming into view in the same way as his uncle.

“Mom” Ben whispered, his voice full of awe. He didn’t know that his mother would be able to return, there was so much he didn’t know about her. Leia wasn’t as upbeat as Luke had been on his arrival, she looked down sadly at Rey. Ben supposed that the two had as much of a parent-child bond that Rey was ever going to get.

“It’s ok to be mad at your uncle, Ben, he _was_ wrong.” Leia knelt down to be face to face with her son as she spoke to him. Luke had the decency to look ashamed of himself.

“But you were wrong too, once. I think you may owe it to Rey to show the same forgiveness she showed you to your family.” Leia said, lifting her hand to cup Ben’s cheek. He couldn’t feel her physically, but the force sent comforting tingles over the spot where her hand touched.

“I…I don’t know if I have the strength to do _this_.” Ben said helplessly, pulling Rey closer to himself for emphasis.

“The power this will take comes from the side of the force I haven’t been a part of in so many years. If I ever engaged with it at all.” Ben said.

“Don’t say that, the light has always been a part of you. Look at who your mom is.” Luke said. Ben looked up at him.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” It was more a statement than a question, Ben’s eyes travelled from Luke to his mother as he spoke.

“By yourself? Yes. But with us, no.” Leia said, the corners of her mouth turning up.

“It’s the thought that counts though, kid.” Luke said, winking. “I’m sure she’ll appreciate it all the same.”

“You’re going to help me?” Ben asked, wonder filling his face. Luke crouched down next to Leia, they both smiled at him.

“Of course we are, that’s what family is for.” Leia told him, laying her hand on top of Rey’s unmoving one resting on the ground. Luke placed his hand on Rey’s shoulder as Ben resettled his hand on Rey’s stomach. Leia closed her eyes to concentrate, “Let the force flow through you Ben.” She said.

It was just like when Rey had helped him on the Falcon, the side of the force that had been reaching out to him for years suddenly sprung to life. Perhaps his family could sense Ben’s thoughts returning to the Falcon, because Leia said, “Your father would be so proud of you.”

Her words brought a new wave of emotion over Ben as the force electrified him in a way that was so hopeful he wanted to cry out. Ben looked over at Luke, who hadn’t closed his eyes and was watching Ben carefully.

“I forgive you.” Ben whispered. At his words, Luke’s face broke into a sad smile. He seemed almost as overcome with emotion as Ben was.

“Thanks, kid.” Luke said softly, “Hey…I’ll see you around.” Luke sounded like he wanted to say something else, but a movement in Ben’s arms brought his attention elsewhere.

“Ben?” The voice was quiet, Ben jumped slightly as he felt a small hand grasp his own. Looking down, he saw Rey’s eyes flutter open. She lay there for a moment, then shot straight up like she was shocked by something. Ben kept a hand lingering on her back, holding her up.

Rey looked at him in total shock, everything had been dark a moment ago. And she had been alone. But now she was staring into the face of the man Rey realized she had come to care about as deeply as any other person. Her face broke into a smile, “Ben” She said again, this time with relief. Ben couldn’t help himself and his face broke into a smile as well, he couldn’t remember the last time he had smiled out of pure happiness.

Bringing her hand to his cheek, Rey acted on impulse and kissed him suddenly. It was urgent and passionate, and it felt _right._

Rey pulled away as quickly as she had initiated the kiss, looking suddenly concerned. As though she didn’t know how much Ben wanted her as well. Ben smiled at her again, and pulled her in to continue their kiss, winding his fingers through the back of her hair. Rey broke off the kiss only to wrap her arms tightly around Ben’s neck and bury her face into his chest. He returned the hug, wrapping himself around her small form.

There they sat, no longer alone in the world. The cloudy skies parted above them, the light from the stars chasing the darkness away from Rey and Ben as they held each other tightly, promising without words that they would never let go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had warm fuzzies writing this, our babies deserve some happiness!


	18. After Battle

“Where’s Rey?” Was the question being asked of Finn, Poe, and Rose over and over again as the survivors of the most recent victory for the Resistance congregated to congratulate one another. Their stoic silences were enough to back the rest of their friends up to a safe distance away, honoring their grief.

Rose kept her face turned up to the sky as she sat on a large stone in the clearing on Takodana where the Resistance had planned their rendezvous.

“You didn’t actually see anything happen.” Was her refrain as the day wore on. Poe sat on the ground next to her, silently gathering himself before he had to push his feelings aside and be the leader the Resistance needed. Finn was too distraught to sit, instead he paced back and forth in their bubble of space. He didn’t talk directly to anyone, but he mumbled to himself constantly about how inaccurate the force could be for all he knew, he’d never even been trained.

Hours had passed since the last friendly ship had made its way to Takondana. Poe began readying himself to speak to the group at large, and Rose seemed ready to let the tears begin. Finn continued his pacing, but stopped when they heard the soft bang of a ship entering the atmosphere out of hyperspace and descending towards them.

All eyes turned skyward now, and they saw an unfamiliar ship speeding towards the group. Poe raced off to the Resistance members at the communications systems while Rose jumped to her feet and ran to Finn’s side, clutching his arm to stop his pacing.

“Is it…” She let the question trail off as they heard Poe connecting to the incoming ship.

“Identify yourself,” Poe started in his most commanding voice, “This is not open airspace.”

There was a short burst of crackling from the comms on the other side of the connection before they heard a response.

“This is Rey, I’m coming in for landing!”

A low haze of dread had been stifling the celebrations, but at her words every person in the clearing burst into cheers. Rose did let her tears flow, but now they were out of pure happiness. She wrapped Finn in a vice-like hug, trapping his arms to his sides as shock and relief rolled off him in waves.

Poe and Finn caught eyes. Throwing caution to the wind, Poe marched back towards Finn and without hesitation caught Finn in the deep and passionate kiss they had been waiting for. There were more cheers at this, the entire base it had seemed was waiting for them to finally take their relationship to the next level.

Rey’s ship was about to land, and Poe pulled himself away from Finn as he grinned from ear to ear. He squeezed Finn’s hands as turned away and almost skipped back towards the make-shift command center. Multiple people slapping his arms or shaking his shoulders as he walked through the throng of people. Rose simply rolled her eyes, she still couldn’t figure out why they had waited so long.

As Rey’s ship settled onto the grass with the rest of the Resistance vessels, a large group of people raced forward to greet her while Finn hung back. He could see what was going on from where he was standing.

The door to her ship released vertically with a hiss, as it was an older model ship some steam escaped as well. Rey removed her helmet and climbed down to the ground carefully, as Finn observed the scene in front of him he clocked that Rey was moving more slowly than usual and he made a mental note to bring her to the Resistance medic the moment she would let him.

Endless hugs were waiting for Rey as she made her way into the crowd of people, she grinned sheepishly as she continued to adjust to the love of a family. Rose finally grabbed ahold of Rey, her hug was brief as Rose’s main objective was to bring her to Finn. At the commanding tone in Rose’s voice, the throng of Resistance members cleared a path for Rose to march Rey through.

When Rey finally caught sight of Finn, he couldn’t hold himself back any longer and sprinted the rest of the distance between them. He caught Rey in a hug that lifted her off her feet, but at the sharp inhale from Rey, Finn set her down quickly.

“Are you ok?” Finn asked, stepping back. Rey gave him a small smile that he couldn’t help but return.

“It’s just my ribs, and arm, and face a bit.” Rey shrugged, closing the distance between herself and Finn again and hugging him gently with her good arm.

“Where’s, you know…” Rose started, and finished by mouthing the name Ben. Rey’s cheeks turned pink and she looked down at the ground sheepishly as she answered Rose’s question.

“Well, we…uh actually I’ll tell you later ok?” Rey mumbled, Rose gasped in shock before recovering herself, not enough to keep the giggles at bay.

“As long as I get all the details.” She said sternly, Rey only looked a bit worried. She turned around as she sensed Poe approaching, and accepted his hug gratefully.

“I’m glad you’re alright, kid.” Poe murmured in Rey’s ear. She could have given him a sarcastic remark back, but decided that in light of her actual death experience she thought she might re-examine her relationship dynamic with Poe. Wholehearted compliments were nice.

“I need to talk to you,” Rey said when they pulled away, and after glancing around at the crowd that was circled around them she added, “Alone, if you don’t mind.”

Poe’s mood dropped a bit, he knew what she was going to ask him. “Scram guys, we’ll celebrate later. I need to debrief the Jedi here.” He told the gathered crowd, all of whom departed good-naturedly. Finn, Rose, and Chewie remained huddled next to Rey and Poe, neither of whom waved them away.

“He turned his back on them, the First Order.” Rey said, jumping right into it. “He turned his back and helped take down the Emperor, he gave up the name Kylo Ren. He’s just Ben again.” Rey continued, looking directly at Poe. His resolute face wavered a bit when she mentioned the name Ben.

“He saved my life, I was…” Rey had turned to Finn, but her words trailed off. She didn’t know how to explain what had happened.

“You died.” Finn finished for her, she looked back at him in shock.

“How did you know that?” Rey asked, puzzled. Finn sat down on one of the large rocks in the clearing.

“I felt it, somehow.” He said with a faraway look on his face. “I used the force.”

Rey sat down quickly next to him, “The force?” She said, a small smile on her face. “You feel it too! But why didn’t you say anything?”

“I’ve been trying, I just didn’t know what to say.” Finn said sheepishly.

“You’re so naturally powerful, Rey. He was probably embarrassed to say anything.” Rose said. Finn gave her a look, but didn’t deny anything.

“You just need a teacher, Finn.” Rey said kindly, grabbing one of his hands with both of her own.

“Will you teach me?” Finn asked.

“I suppose it’s down to me, isn’t it?” Rey said lightly.

“From what you were saying before, it doesn’t sound like you’re the last force user out there Rey.” Poe interjected. “I can’t just wave my hand and forgive all the crimes he’s committed. Leia left me in charge, and the first thing I do can’t be letting the former Kylo Ren stomp around the Resistance base with no repercussions.

“Ben knows that, Poe.” Rey said, still holding onto Finn’s hand. “He says he’s willing to turn himself over and await a trail…whatever the outcome may be.”

Poe took in the nauseated look on Rey’s face as she mentioned that last bit, he didn’t need the force to tell that she already cared deeply for Ben. “Don’t bring him here, our troops will get too carried away. They're emotional, and they’ll want redemption for all the lives we lost. They’ll call for an execution.”

Finn sensed Rey’s tension at Poe’s words and gave her hands a comforting squeeze. “We’ll alert the Resistance that Ben has given himself over for trial and is being confined to a single planet. We can do an at-distance trail, and I can push for a period of exile before being given permission to move at his own discretion.” Rey jumped up and flew into Poe’s arms.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” Rey repeated as she squeezed her arms arounds Poe’s neck.

“Can’t breathe!” Poe gasped, and Rey held him for one second more before releasing him. The smile on her face was worth the headache this trail was going to cause him.

“Rey’s going to want to be with him, won’t she?” Rose commented. Rey turned to her, offering no denials to the claim. “I won’t be confined to the planet will I? So I can still give you help when you need it?” Rey asked the group at large.

“You’re free to do as you like, this is a volunteer organization.” Poe said, not bothering to hide the disappointment in his voice.

“I supposed I’ll have to go with you.” Finn said.

“What?” Poe exclaimed. Finn turned to him, “Not all the time, Poe. But I need to train. Of course, I’ll still want to be here with you too.” He said in a soft, loving tone. It seemed to placate Poe a bit. Rose bounded to Poe’s side a slapped him on the back, “Don’t fret Poe, I’ll be here full time to keep you company!” She said cheerfully. Chewie roared in agreement.

Rey glanced around and spotted the Falcon, her friends noticed her gaze.

“You’re leaving now?” Rose asked sadly. Rey gave her a hug, “I’ll be back soon. I need to tell Ben what the plan is.”

“No, Rey you need to go to the medical unit.” Finn protested.

“I promise I won’t even be gone for a full day.” She said, trying to placate her concerned friends.

“You better.” Finn grumbled, Rey gave him a mischievous smile in response before moving as quickly as she could to the Falcon. Finn, Poe, Rose, and Chewie watched as the ramp to the Falcon lifted slowly, before the thrusters flashed blue and the ship raised into the air. There were cheers from the Resistance as the watched the Falcon rise higher and eventually disappear into the atmosphere.

“She’s coming back, right?” Poe asked. Finn threw an arm around Poe’s shoulder and pulled him close, giving him a small peck on the cheek.

“She’ll always come back.” Finn told him confidently, before taking Rose’s hand with his free one and dragging both of them towards the celebrating Resistance.


End file.
